Wright is up for an Oscar for best actor this year for the film American Fiction, where he plays a novelist who's frustrated with the publishing industry's expectations of Black authors. He cynically writes a book under a pseudonym that's full of clichés, like drug abuse, violence, and poverty — and it's a hit. Wright's first starring role was in the 1996 film Basquiat. He talks with us about his big break in the play Angels in America, and the time early in his career when he was acting opposite Sidney Poitier and asked for advice on acting. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
On the Ted Radio hour, linguist Ann.
Curzan says she gets a lot of.
Complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is.
The history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Tanya Moseley, and our guest today is award winning actor Jeffrey Wright.
From blockbuster movies to independent films and television, Wright is often referred to as an actor's actor.
He's portrayed important historical american figures, including artist Jean Michel Basquiat, Muddy Waters, Colin Powell and Martin Luther King.
Junior Wright has also appeared in three Bond films, the Hunger Games series Batman and Wes Anderson's the French Dispatch.
In Asteroid City, he was a series regular in the HBO shows Boardwalk Empire and Westworld.
This year, Wright is up for an Oscar for best actor for his role as Thelonious Monk Ellison in american fiction.
It's about a frustrated novelist and professor fed up with the literary world, profiting from stereotypical stories about black people.
To prove his point, Monk uses a pen name and writes a book that leans into all of the stereotypes, and he's offered a huge advance, making him the very kind of author he's tried to avoid becoming.
The film is adapted and directed by Court Jefferson and is based on the novel erasure by Percival Everett.
Jeffrey Wright is a Tony Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning actor.
In addition to american fiction, he also stars as Adam Clayton Powell Junior in the recent film Ruston.
Jeffrey Wright, welcome to Fresh Air.