Jeffrey Wright has managed to get into some great projects from Boardwalk Empire to Westworld, and he almost always plays a certain type of intellectual, sophisticated character. Now with his new movie American Fiction, he has to play a certain ‘type’ that fans of his have never seen him act as before.
Watch the trailer here:
The official synopsis for the film reads:
AMERICAN FICTION is Cord Jefferson’s hilarious directorial debut, which confronts our culture’s obsession with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes. Jeffrey Wright stars as Monk, a frustrated novelist who’s fed up with the establishment profiting from “Black” entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, Monk uses a pen name to write an outlandish “Black” book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.
The film definitely feels like a cynical take on the industry’s attempts at representation, and the reception of black culture and the expectations that come with it.
I especially love how they cast Wright in the role; after all, it does feel like he’s been typecast as this usually academic character who is bookish, calm, and collected. To have him still play that, but have to pretend to be all the usual stereotypes associated with black culture should be a delight to watch onscreen.
It’s also worth mentioning that Cord Jefferson, though he is a first time director, has worked for highly-acclaimed series including Master of None and HBO’s Watchmen series.
American Fiction is set to release on Dec. 22 later this year.
