Jeffrey Wright, a longtime stalwart supporting actor and actor of sorts, received his first Oscar nomination Tuesday for his lead performance in “American Fiction.” The film also received nominations for best picture, adapted screenplay for writer-director Cord Jefferson, supporting actor for Sterling K. Brown, and original score for Laura Karpman.
Based on the 2001 novel “Erasure” by Percival Everett, the film won the People's Choice Award when it premiered last September at the Toronto International Film Festival, which is often an indicator of future Oscar success. Wright was also nominated for a Gotham Award, a Golden Globe, a Spirit Award, and a SAG Award.
In the snappy satire, Wright plays Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a professor and writer who has been told his work isn't “black enough.” While he figures out how to care for his mother (Leslie Uggams), who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, his beloved sister Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross) dies unexpectedly of a heart attack. Monk and his brother Cliff (Brown) try to put their family's life back together. Frustrated, Monk writes a book under the pseudonym “Stagg R. Leigh” that is intended to be a parody of representations of black life in the literary world. Instead, it is taken at face value and becomes a runaway success. Monk must decide whether to reveal his true self or keep up his charade.
Wright previously won a Tony for her performance in “Angels in America” and an Emmy for the same role in the HBO show adaptation. Since his first starring role as artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1996's “Basquiat,” he has worked on the “Hunger Games” franchise, three of the recent James Bond films, the television series “Westworld” and films such as “The Batman” and “The French Dispatch” and “Asteroid City” by Wes Anderson.
Wright spoke by phone with The Times on Tuesday morning to discuss her Oscar nomination. He was at his home in Brooklyn when the announcements were made and, as he put it, “I was awake, but not to watch. I decided to keep the TV off and the computer off, just in case there was any sudden and unexpected damage to the screen depending on the news. “I just wandered around my house and kept an eye on my phone.”
This is his first nomination. What does it mean to you?
It is a recognition by my colleagues and the academy that the work is good. I'm particularly glad that the film has been recognized and the work of Cord, Sterling and Laura, and really everyone who contributed to this film. What I love most about making films is that they are collaborative.
I love when collaboration is with generous, intelligent and passionate partners. That's what we had in this movie. When we were doing it, we had the feeling that we might be onto something special. So this recognition suggests that perhaps we were right. And then, furthermore, we are a small film. We shot this in 25 days, 26 because we had an extra day after some cuts of the film. This then brings more attention to our film and ideally the audience will respond and absorb the story and be moved by it in the same way that we were moved when we made it. Everything is alright.
Particularly given that you play supporting roles so often, does it mean more to you that this nomination came for a lead role?
Either way. If they're handing them out, I'll take it. An Oscar is an Oscar, a nomination is a nomination.
Jeffrey Wright in the film “American Fiction.”
(Courtesy of TIFF)
You said the film felt special even while you were making it. What was it about this particular project?
Cord Jefferson wrote a screenplay adapted from Percival Everett's novel “Erasure” that was smart, topical, fluid, ironic in the best way, and funny. And that attracted a group of actors and a crew who were passionate about helping Cord tell this story. As we worked on the film, we all had a growing sense that the work we were doing had to be done with special care. You could feel in the team that there were a few more degrees of pride in what they were doing and that grew throughout the production.
That happens sometimes, and not always, but when it happens and you feel it, it tells you that you are doing it right. And that's what happened on the Boston set with this one. It was one of the most fun times I've ever had working on a movie, to the point that he made me love Boston, which is a personal miracle for me.
W.Why do you think the public has responded so strongly?
I think audiences have an appetite for story-driven films. We haven't had as many movies as we used to in theaters. This film in some ways reminds us of films from one of the golden eras of American cinema, films from the 70s that were about characters and stories and were made in ways that explored current trends and interests in society, and in a way who was optimistic. . Our movie is fun, but at the same time, there is a deep thread of emotion that runs through it. And I think all of that gives it accessibility and gives the content of the film, the conversations about race, identity and representation, greater palatability. So we were able to make a wonderful stew, it was a recipe that seems to work.
As you said, there are are cocomments in the movie about media representations of black life while, at the same time, we are taking a family'yes history running in parallel. In some way, the film is in conversation with itself. As a performer, how do you approach the multiple levels? of some of those scenes?
For me, it was completely organic. There was no disparity between one side, so to speak, of the film and another. Each of them blended together and had a sort of symbiotic relationship with each other. The absurdity of Monk's double life is tied to the ordinary humanity of his family life, because to some extent it is born from the necessity of family responsibilities. So these are not two stories that coexist on parallel tracks. They are intimately connected. And there's a fluidity that was very clear on the page, and I just played it.
You've talked about how you felt a personal connection to parts of Monk's story because of the things you've been through with your own family. Do you bring those personal things to your performance?
First, it attached me to the character and the narrative on an intimate and emotional level. But I don't think I realized to what extent it was working, maybe subconsciously too. It has been a powerful experience of self-reflection. Less while I was working on the film, more now that it's released and I've come to understand through the audience's reaction what it means to them and also more what it means to me. We feel a strange detachment from the audience when we work on films, and it's not until they receive it that the story really comes home. And so I think, yes, there was an understanding of Monk's condition that came from my own experiences. But what I was able to contribute in telling the story was even more than he was aware of while he was making it.
Because it is a film about a man and his relationship with love: love for another, love for himself, love for family. It is also a meditation on pain, loss, frustration and the potential to get out of it all. So there is a deep emotional and psychological well within this story. And I appreciate it more every day considering my familiarity with this character.
Monk is frustrated with doubts about whether your work is “Black enough.” Is that something that also Did it resonate for you?
Throughout my life, I have faced various perspectives on who I am and how I fit within the cultural parameters in which we live, of course. I understand those external pressures and those external perceptions or misperceptions. I try to be who I am despite everything, my authentic self, which is Monk's challenge. I can't live my life based on other people's ideas about who I am. None of us can. And as an actor and creative person, one of the main responsibilities is to discover and express one's own authentic voice. And I've tried to do that. I don't always choose my work based on purely creative impulses. Sometimes there are pragmatic impulses related to responsibility towards the family. But, over time, I found comfort within my skin and within my voice.
I heard you say that you think the movie is funny. but you don't think it's a comedy. What is the distinction for you?
I think it is a tragedy disguised as a comedy, a tragedy disguised as a comedy, in the sense that satire responds to tragic idiocy and absurdity that is better responded to with humor than with pure anger. And there is an undercurrent of pain and crisis within the film that is born of tragic circumstances. So we laughed to keep from crying, from the beginning.
Having seen Cord Jefferson When giving interviews and promoting the film, did you base your portrayal of Monk on Cord himself?
No. What does Sammy Davis Jr. say? Sometimes I just have to be me. I read the script. I read the novel, parts of it at the beginning and then in the process. But the main source of material, in a way, was the book of my own life. And that is fortunate and unfortunate.
You are such a prolific actor that it seems like you are always working. Last year with the actors' strike, did it become a moment to reflect??
I must say it was time well spent. I needed a little break. And that was a moment of self-reflection, a bit of decompression and rejuvenation.
Did you come to any new conclusions? You learned?
The work continues.
