Jeffrey Wright is one of the most established actors in the industry and has made quite a name for himself over the years. The actor first rose to fame for his portrayal of Belize in the Broadway production of Angels in America back in 1993 and won a Tony Award for the same.
Also read: “That’s not happening,”: Westworld Star Jeffrey Wright Quit Show That Refused To Let Him Say 1 Word
The American actor even went on to win a Primetime Emmy award for the portrayal of the same character in its HBO adaptation. Despite being an amazing actor both in front and behind the camera, even Wright is not safe from the insults of directors as he recently revealed in an interview.
Jeffrey Wright was insulted in somewhat of a different way by a legendary director
A lot of huge stars recently joined a full actors roundtable conference organized by The Hollywood Reporter. The panel consisted of some of the biggest stars of the industry like Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Andrew Scott, Colman Domingo, Paul Giamatti, and Jeffrey Wright. The Syriana actor opened up about the time when he was absolutely insulted by a director in a very weird way. He said,
“I am not gonna be specific. So, there was this role based on this book that is really interesting, the subject that was really interesting. It is being directed by this super well-regarded, somewhat of a legend director. We’re going to do a read-through out in LA, I am in New York. Yeah okay, cool. We fly on this director’s private plane, he’s part of a kind of a syndicate…We’re all gathered around, we do the reading and I don’t know how that went so I go back to my hotel room. I get a phone call, ‘Jeffrey that was interesting, I don’t think you’re going back on the plane. We’re flying you out separately.'”
That actually is kind of a weird way to insult such a talented actor. Jeffrey Wright further revealed that he did end up working with the director on a different project a few years later.
The Batman actor is very firm about his views
Back in 1999, Jeffrey Wright decided to portray the role of Daniel Holt in the movie, Ride with the Devil. Wright’s character was a former slave and once in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor talked about the incident he clashed against the production house when they asked him to censor a word. In Hollywood sometimes, a line that might be considered offensive by some people is often dubbed by the actor in a bunch of different ways and each region receives a different version of those lines.
He opened up about the incident and revealed when the studio asked him to censor the N-word he had said in the movie to something different, he straight up refused to do it and left the studio. He said,
“In this scene in which he has this, kind of the apex of his awakening and his need to emancipate himself, he says, ‘Being that man’s friend was no more than being his n*****. And I will never again be anyone’s n*****,’” Wright recalled. “And it’s such a self-empowering statement and understanding of the word.”
Jeffrey Wright further revealed that the studio eventually found someone else to do the dubbing for them. Although the actor did not agree to this, there was nothing he could’ve done to avoid it either so he just went along with it.
Ride with the Devil is currently available for rent on Apple TV+.
