The Magnificent Seven director Antoine Fuqua says film remake's diverse casting is 'not a statement'

'I just wanted to see Denzel Washington on a horse. Everyone else fell in place around that idea'

Opening the Toronto International Film Festival was the newly rebooted The Magnificent Seven, starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke.

Speaking candidly about the choice to diversify the cast, director Antoine Fuqua said it “wasn’t to make a statement.” According to Radio Times, he said: "I just wanted to see Denzel Washington on a horse. Everyone else fell in place around that idea.”

The other four gunslingers are Daredevil’s Vincent D'Onofrio, Native American actor Martin Sensmeier, South Korean actor Byung-Hun Lee, and Mexico's Manuel Garcia-Rulfo.

Fuqua continued: “We don't talk about [diversity] because [the media] talk about it. My idea was: Denzel Washington walks into a room and the room stops, Clint Eastwood walks into a room and the room stops. Is it because of the gunslinger or because of the colour of his skin? So we let the audience decide.”

The director, who worked with Washington on Training Day and The Equalizer, explained how Westerns have always changed with the times: "You can't do the same thing every era. If we were sticking to just one way of doing something then all westerns would be all white guys looking like John Wayne. Westerns change with the time we're in, so we made our film based on the world we are living in.”

Washington also spoke to the press at the premiere, revealing how he never watched the 1960s classic: "I didn't keep away from it, I just didn't know how it would help me. I'd never seen it as a kid.” Fuqua also spoke about the difficulty in casting Steve McQueen’s character.

The Magnificent Seven is released on 23 September.