According to The Charleston Gazette, the casting director for the upcoming film Shelter was fired after the the West Virginia Film Office, on behalf of Governor Manchin, contacted the producers on Tuesday night about a casting call for West Virginian extras. The producers say the film does not take place in WV.

“On behalf of the entire SHELTER production we regret and are deeply sorry for the very insensitive casting call sent out without our knowledge by our casting director Donna Belajac who has been dismissed from this project as a result,” Barroso and Loquet said in a statement issued Tuesday night.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review had reported on Tuesday that the casting call wanted “that ‘inbred’ look” according to what they heard from Belajac.

“It’s the way it was described in the script,” Belajac said Monday. “Some of these ‘holler’ people — because they are insular and clannish, and they don’t leave their area — there is literally inbreeding, and the people there often have a different kind of look. That’s what we’re trying to get.”

The Charleston Gazette also reports that Belajac did not have any comments for the newspapers on Tuesday or Wednesday.

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