You know when a tweet has almost three times as many replies as it does retweets that it probably hasn't gone down well.

Such was the case on Wednesday, when Deadline shared a clip from Dakota Fanning's upcoming movie Sweetness in the Belly.

‘Sweetness In The Belly’: First Clip Of Dakota Fanning As A White Ethiopian Muslim In Refugee Drama-Romance – Toronto https://t.co/L8ZPRnTIfu pic.twitter.com/8eFCBiv9IQ — Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) September 4, 2019

You can probably see why it caused so much controversy.

In recent years, Hollywood has come under enormous criticism for racially insensitive casting — and based on the publisher's headline, many people thought this movie was yet another example.

so many talented Muslim actors out there and you cast... Dakota Fanning???????????????????? and to play an ETHIOPIAN?????????????? I BEG YOUR PARDON??????????????? https://t.co/XAgs6y2G98 — Muhammad Butt (@muhammadbutt) September 4, 2019

Sweetness In My Belly?



I'd have called it Milk In The Coffee or Young East African Swirl. A film as terribly trope laden as this deserves a terribly tropey name. https://t.co/gRu8FHiRFL — Bae Grylls, Tumblr Bisexual (Esq.) (@TheAuracl3) September 4, 2019

this tweet gets worse with every word. https://t.co/hzJdbK9idH — Rossalyn Warren (@RossalynWarren) September 4, 2019

Did she steal this role from Scarlett Johansen? — Laurie Kilmartin (@anylaurie16) September 4, 2019

On Wednesday night, Fanning responded to the criticism in an Instagram story.

"In the new film I'm a part of, Sweetness in the Belly, I do not play an Ethiopian woman," she wrote. "I play a British woman abandoned by her parents at seven years old in Africa and raised Muslim."

Here's her response in full:

Sweetness in the Belly is based on a 2005 novel of the same name by Camilla Gibb.

"After her hippie British parents are murdered, Lilly is raised at a Sufi shrine in Morocco," reads the blurb on Goodreads. "As a young woman she goes on pilgrimage to Harar, Ethiopia, where she teaches Qur'an to children and falls in love with an idealistic doctor. But even swathed in a traditional headscarf, Lilly can't escape being marked as a foreigner. Forced to flee Ethiopia for England, she must once again confront the riddle of who she is and where she belongs."

Although Fanning's response caused some people to suggest Deadline apologise to Fanning for their "misleading headline", which the publisher has now updated, others were still unhappy with the concept of the movie as a whole.

Whether it’s based on a book or not, I still question why we are getting yet another depiction of a plight that primarily affects people of color with a white protagonist. Why not the story of a black Ethiopian Muslim instead? When do we see that film? 🤔 — Lisa Bee (@leebee4life) September 5, 2019

The movie is whatever. The issue is the book to begin with, written by a white woman who doesn't appear to have any connection to the story. It's like the only way to get white people to care about POC struggles is to insert a white person as the victim and/or savior — Jess (@wayfaring_chick) September 5, 2019

Sweetness in the Belly premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 7.