Multiple film and TV stars were blindsided this week by the announcement that their voices would appear in a Fox News Media podcast. The network’s “The Life of Jesus Podcast” will feature such names as Kristen Bell, Brian Cox, and Malcolm McDowell after repurposing audio recorded over 15 years ago for another project.
Many fans of these celebrities condemned the use of their voices without consent for a podcast associated with a rather controversial company.
Brian Cox isn’t going to like this
The network announced the new project on Nov. 19 as part of its expansion of Fox Faith. This podcast boasts the use of over 100 celebrity voices to broadcast the “life, teachings, and miracles of Jesus Christ.”
Many of these names stunned Fox News critics, including some of their owners.
A representative for The Good Place star Kristen Bell said that while she consented to voice Mary Magdalene for a New Testament audiobook called The Truth and Life Dramatized Audio Bible in 2010, nobody told her that work would be remixed for something else.
She only learned about it on Tuesday when Fox & Friends invited her on as a guest to promote the project.
The network similarly failed to inform Succession actor Brian Cox, and he might be more upset about it than anyone. In 2021, Brian Cox literally called Fox News “like, the devil.”
“Brian recorded audio for a project over a decade ago,” a representative for Cox told Rolling Stone. “He was unaware that the audio would be repurposed for a new podcast series in 2025.”
He, like the rest of us, didn’t hear about it until Wednesday. Bombshell actor Malcolm McDowell has a similar story.
“We had no knowledge these recordings were being redistributed as a podcast until this week,” said his rep to Entertainment Weekly.
Other voices appropriated for the new Jesus podcast include Sean Astin, Neal McDonough, Julia Ormond, and John Rhys-Davies. Fox will surely soon find out if “repurposing” all these actors’ work is against union rules, because Astin is currently serving as the 4th national president of SAG-AFTRA.
“That sounds right”
Those familiar with and critical of Fox News’ work didn’t exactly experience surprise when they learned why some of their favorite names would appear in its latest religious project. Of course, that doesn’t mean they would hold back.
“It’s not hard to imagine a right-wing source using something 15 years old without its consent,” wrote @idraenen on X.
“People at Fox News doing things without consent. Yeah, that sounds right,” @Gx9fight jabbed.
Plenty of these commenters are hoping for serious legal and financial consequences for the network.
“I hope she sues the f*ck out of them,” said Kristen Bell fan @titussottertwin.
“Sean Astin is the president of SAG-AFTRA,” @thedogthedragon pointed out. “Fox just sh*t in the wrong bed.”
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