News - Kristen Bell, Brian Cox, and other actors had no knowledge that their voices would be used in Fox News's 'Life of Jesus' podcast.

A group of Hollywood actors, including Kristen Bell, Brian Cox, Malcolm McDowell, say they had no idea that a voice-over project they did 15 years ago would be repurposed for a Fox News religious podcast series. The actors — also including Sean Astin, John Rhys-Davies, Julia Ormond, Stacy Keach, and Michael York — say they were surprised to learn that their voice work for a 2010 project titled Truth & Life Dramatized Audio Bible was being repackaged by Gulfstream Studios as The Life of Jesus, which is being distributed as a 52-part podcast for Fox News’s new Fox Faith brand. Some fans reportedly took to social media to express dismay that the actors were working for Fox News. But representatives for several of the actors say they were not aware their work from 2010 was being repackaged for Fox Faith until the podcast was announced this week. “We had no knowledge these recordings were being redistributed as a podcast until this week,” a representative for actor Malcolm McDowell told Entertainment Weekly. “This was long ago forgotten about.” Kristen Bell’s rep told Rolling Stone that she only became aware of the new Fox Faith podcast on the day before the series was announced when Fox Faith contacted her and asked her to promote the series. Representatives for Brian Cox and John Rhys-Davies also told the media that they were unaware of the project until this week’s unveiling. Rolling Stone also allegedly received a copy of an email from a producer of the Fox Faith series asking one of the actors not to tell people that the original project is from 2010. Gulfstream Studios owns the work from 2010, of course, and has every legal right to repackage it any way they desire. The email reportedly added, “we’d like it to feel like something that was produced more recently.” Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: Facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston, or at X/Twitter @WTHuston.