Jeffrey Wright (‘American Fiction’): ICON MANN hosts intimate conversation and career retrospective moderated by Tracee Ellis Ross
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Last week ICON MANN™ hosted an intimate conversation with “American Fiction” star Jeffrey Wright. The one-night-only career retrospective from stage to film and television was moderated by Tracee Ellis Ross and took place at Soho Works in West Hollywood.
Wright is a well-esteemed actor having reaped Emmy, Tony, and Golden Globe wins over the tenure of his career. He won his first-ever Primetime Emmy in 2004 for Best TV Movie/Limited Series Supporting Actor for “Angels in America,” and earned a Golden Globe for the same show. This year, the actor could be heading towards a slew of other accolades thanks to his portrayal of Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, the English literature professor he portrays in Cord Jefferson‘s comedy “American Fiction.”
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Read the full transcript of Wright’s conversation with Ellis below.
Tracee Ellis Ross: How are you?
Jeffrey Wright: I’m good.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Yeah?
Jeffrey Wright: With you, I’m even better.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Jeffrey and I had a lot of fun working together. I will tell you my favorite story; it’s now my claim to fame. First day working, Jeffrey and I are in the car, and we’re in the middle of the scene and he starts laughing. And I was like, “What’s happening?” And he said, “You’re funny.” I got Jeffrey Wright to break.
Jeffrey Wright: Could not keep it together.
Tracee Ellis Ross: That’s fantastic. And we were locked in the car. And then I was like, “Oh my God, I have a captive audience that thinks I’m funny. We’re done.” So let’s dive in. What did you eat for breakfast this morning?
Jeffrey Wright: I had some yogurt.
Jeffrey Wright: Had some yogurt. I think I had a banana.
Jeffrey Wright: And I got in the car.
Tracee Ellis Ross: And you got in the car?
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah. Just ran into a car.
Tracee Ellis Ross: They’ve been moving Jeffrey around.
Jeffrey Wright: They went somewhere with me. Yeah.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Yep. So, over 50 movies. I don’t even know how many plays. I Googled it. It said, “54 movies.” I feel like that’s a lie. I feel like there’s more. What do you think? Do you know?
Jeffrey Wright: Geez, I don’t know.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Okay.
Jeffrey Wright: I don’t know.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Throughout the course of your career, you have played so many different kinds of characters, historical figures, double agent, scientist, doctor, war veteran, villain, journalist, author, artist. So many different kinds of people. And you always make them compelling, layered, human, memorable people. And you transform yourself to the point of sometimes you’re like, “Is that Jeffrey Wright?” You can be a curmudgeon, you can be a mean knight turning villain, and you can be a sexy leading man.
What is your process once you start to burrow into a role? And I like to say burrow because I will say that in my experience working with him, there’s a thing that he does where he goes inside the character. So what’s your process?
Jeffrey Wright: A friend of mine used to say… A friend of mine back in the village in New York. He used to say, “If you can’t beat them, confuse them.”
Tracee Ellis Ross: That’s your process?
Jeffrey Wright: That’s my process. That’s how I would work. It’s true. People, they may have seen five of my movies and they’ll see movies, and they say, “Hey, the first time I saw…” It’s like, “Dude, but you saw X, that was the same actor, if you realize.” I was always drawn to actors who were one thing in one movie, another in another, and then still another in the next movie. People like Dustin Hoffman from Happy to Midnight Cowboy to Marathon Man. I just loved the way he crafted himself. And it seemed to me that there was a magic in that, and I was drawn to that. I always had a pretty good ear growing up. I think it was because I inhabited a few different types of spaces; D.C. in Southeast, my family in Virginia and rural Virginia.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Were you born in Virginia?
Jeffrey Wright: No, I was born in D.C.
Jeffrey Wright: And then school, on the other side of D.C. So, I always had to be attuned to different types of language and different expectations. And so, I think it had something to do with being able to adapt. I enjoyed just that aspect of the work that would build the character. Particularly, it was actors who came out of the theater as well, where the body was so much more important to the role. And so, I was just drawn to that.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Do you mean the actual physical body?
Jeffrey Wright: The physical body.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Yeah.
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Interact with your head.
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah. And like, “Hey man, I got all of these things, all of these tools to use, from my feet to the top of my head.” And the idea was to try to provide as much information as I possibly could with those tools. And also as well, there weren’t always… As in American Fiction, a role that was written for my type. Or “Bring me a Jeffrey Wright type.” That’s not often the case. So, I had to, more often than not, make myself fit into that character and fit into that space and have the ability to be flexible. And so, it’s kept me busy in that way. But it’s specifically the way that I work. I don’t work in a single way. What I try to be is open to the given circumstance.
Jeffrey Wright: So, whatever it may be, just be quiet enough to be able to fit myself into what’s needed. And try to do as much work as I can prior.
Tracee Ellis Ross: When you do work in advance, do you… Well, not about historical figures, but people that we don’t know, that don’t exist. When you’re creating a character, do you lean in? Is there journaling that you do? Do you go in by what kind of shoes do they wear?
Jeffrey Wright: Oh, that’s big.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Yeah, that’s a big one for me. How they’re grounded to the earth.
Jeffrey Wright: Yes.
Tracee Ellis Ross: But are there particular things you do all the time, or it just depends?
Jeffrey Wright: It depends. It depends. Shoes are big though. Walk in another person’s shoes, that always helps. With American Fiction, the glasses were big. So, I wanted to find something kind of owlish for him. Just seemed like the right touch. We had wonderful crew. Wonderful crew. And the prop department brought me a bunch of different… Like 50 different glasses.
Tracee Ellis Ross: I feel like I was there that day.
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah, they brought me all kinds of …. So, I think it might’ve been… Even the morning before the first day of filming. I think we may have started a little bit late for some reason. There’s a department store. I think it was a Macy’s, near Faneuil Hall. And I’m going over there, and I found those glasses.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Is that true?
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah. I found it at the department store. I brought them over with me, I say, “I found the glasses.” And so, that was the last detail for that character in terms of the exterior. But it depends. It depends. And with Monk as well, there wasn’t a lot of slithering that was required. I probably fit myself into that character with less friction than any other character that I played. Very close to home.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Do you want to talk about that or no?
Jeffrey Wright: We’ll get there. We’ll get there. But, for example, with Basquiat-
Tracee Ellis Ross: Mm-hmm. Because that’s what I was going to ask you. If there’s a different process when there’s a historical figure, someone we know-
Jeffrey Wright: Sure.
Tracee Ellis Ross: … is there a way that you lean into that but make it your own? Or do you really try and create what existed?
Jeffrey Wright: Oh, I try to do honor to that person’s memory and persona. Yeah, there’s an extra level of responsibility there. But I’ll say just one more thing about nonfictional, like with Shaft, with Peoples, I would go up to Washington Heights. And I think the last element for me with that was going to a barbershop up there, this Dominican barbershop, and having my haircut and my beard shaved. Those were the two things that I wanted to find. And just listening to those guys, the rhythms of that place, trying to just soak all of that in. But there was also a friend of mine… I used to go to this men’s club in Midtown. It was an old Jewish men’s club, like Walter Matthau had belonged to this place and Ed Sullivan. And it was around the corner from the Ed Sullivan Theater, right in the heart of the theater district. And they were mainly these old businessmen, hanging out naked. It was a place where you could go get a steam. They had a basketball crew in there. They had a crew. And they’d just be hanging out, playing UNO. Stuff all out.
Tracee Ellis Ross: I would’ve thought they were in suits.
Jeffrey Wright: You walk in with a suit; you walk out with one. So, Jerry or Bob was a member. All of a sudden there was a couple of young actors and writers that joined. Some of them were friends of mine, and they asked me if I want to join. I’m like, “Ah, really? What am I doing today? Yeah.” So eventually I did. And there was a guy who worked there… And it was great for me because it was right by the theaters. So, I would go in later than everyone else because I had to be at the theater at 7:30 ish for half hour. So, I would come in as everyone else was leaving. There was a guy named Rafael Raffi, who kind of ran the joint, who is Dominican. And Raffi would say to me, he said, “Jeffrey,” he’d say, “Why you so late? You turning into a vampire? Like Dracula with the fangs?”
So, Raffi, I actually had Raffi read the script for me. So, I could hear it, so I could hear his… And that’s where I got it. It was Raffi. That’s where I got the… So, whatever is required for any given thing, use the best tool available that suits the job. That’s what I-
Tracee Ellis Ross: Do you guys even hear the burrowing? It’s so interesting because my experience of you before working with you, but just seeing you, is there’s a way… There’s no performance in what you do. There’s a sharing in what you do. And it’s like it comes from an inside place. And so, I think that’s why I was so intrigued to ask. And then also, when you start talking about Basquiat, or a historical figure, in doing honor to that person, there’s… Also, you’re so smart. You’re so smart, and you’re so well-read. There’s just… You (singing). You know?
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah, I read a lot of stuff. I read a lot of-
Tracee Ellis Ross: Yeah, you know a lot of things.
Jeffrey Wright: I read a lot. I read all the time.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Yeah. I can tell, Jeffrey.
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah. Yeah.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Okay. So, let’s jump to the historical figures that you have played because there’s quite a few. I thought I made a list. Yeah. MLK, Muddy Waters, Colin Powell, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Basquiat, and I’m sure there’s others. When you’re portraying historical figures, is the process different in how you enter? Do you do research on them? Do you listen to their voices? Yeah?
Jeffrey Wright: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Probably the one that I worked the most on was Basquiat. I can tell you my process there. It generally holds true with the others, although it wasn’t at the table because it wasn’t those other one was demanding. Basquiat, the funny thing about that was that I was doing Angels in America on Broadway, had been doing it for about a year and a half. And there were two other actors, David Marshall Grant, and Joe Mantello. And we together decided that, “Okay, it’s time to go.” And so, we put in our notice… Our letters.
Tracee Ellis Ross: How long did you do Angels?
Jeffrey Wright: A year and a half, got on a seven-hour plane.
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah, it was incredible. Changed me in every way for the better. So, we put in our notice, big deal, and did the show. That was a matinee. I went back home in between, and I got to my apartment after that show, and there was a message on my voice… An answering machine. And I hit it and it said, “Hey Jeffrey, this is Randy. I’m trying to help this casting director find someone to play Jean-Michel Basquiat, and I thought of you. Would you be interested? Reach out.” It was literally the same day. I was like, “Boom, that’s the next thing.” Well, I’ll tell you how I got the job.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Basquiat?
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah. And then I’ll get into how we work because it’s related. I didn’t have an agent at that time. So, I had parted ways with my agent over the course of the run of Angels, for good reason. And I went to talk to four different agencies after I’d won the Tony. And nobody would have me. So, after the fourth one, I said, “You know what? I’m not talking to these fuckers anymore. I’m done with those discussions.” And then happened to get this call, Randy’s lawyer, who was named Jay… Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe I’m forgetting his name. He was Chris Walken’s lawyer as well, kind of old school lawyer in New York. Anyway, he ended up negotiating the deal for me. But it was a process to get to that point.
So, I got a call to come down and do a read through of the script at Julian Schnabel’s place. But-
Tracee Ellis Ross: It’s like such a treat.
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah, but he wanted me to read the role that Benicio Del Toro played. And he had this other actor reading Jean-Michel Basquiat. So, I said, “I don’t know if I really want to go.” “Yeah, you got to come down. Come down.” It was Georgianne, Chris Walken’s wife, was one of the casting directors. So, I said, “Okay, all right.” So, I go down and I sit around the table, and I read that role of Benny, but I read it as I would play Jean-Michel.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Any actors in the room?
Jeffrey Wright: And I think I got back home, and I got a call saying, “Juliann would like to speak with you.” I said, “Okay.” But then there was a process when the area wasn’t quite done, but eventually we got there. And I think the dates were set up for filming but kept getting pushed back a little bit here and there. So, in the meanwhile… He was incredibly generous in this way: He let me come into his studio and just paint. I pretty much had… I think I had the combination that I would just come in at any time, day, or night, and I would just paint, just to try to learn the facility of painting and authentic.
And there were days when I was in there… Some days I was by myself. It was wonderful. But there were some days where I was in there and there were maybe two dozen Basquiats lined up around me. Because the producers, most of them were also art collectors. How should we say it? They were accumulating in anticipation of the film coming out. So, I would take an image from here and an image from that one and try to create my own version. And it was incredible. That was a big part of the development of that guy.
And then there were interviews, VHS, that I was… Everything, everything, everything that I could find. Just finding the rhythms of his language and his body and just his peculiar way of… He had his own thing. Just trying to find that.
And as well, the even more important thing was just his work. Books and books of his stuff, and just going through and just deciphering and just feeling his language and his imagery, and particularly his language, his poetry. A gentle man. He’s a poet. He’s just unreal.
His poem, Mona Lisa… I don’t want to put your just things that… And also, the references that he makes were very important to me. And the more that I dug into his work, the more I fell in love with him, because he would reference Ali, Miles Davis, Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta, all these places that I used as touchstones. And so, I felt a real kinship with him. So, it was all of this, just information, information, information.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Three things popped in my head. One, those four agents. Two… Anyway. Then the other thing that pops, you said two things about you fell in love with him… It resonated, which I know are things you talk about with Monk as well.
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah.
Tracee Ellis Ross: And that brings me the question of how do you choose roles? Because obviously your body of work has many different kinds of things, but is there a through line, a thread, a connection for you that is that thing that makes you lean towards the role?
Jeffrey Wright: It’s what’s on the page. Not just the words, but the story and the character. I tend to think… In some ways I’m arrogant. If it’s interesting to me, it’s going to be interesting to somebody else. And so, in that case, with that story, what was exciting too was introducing him to a wider audience because he was not very well known outside of the art world in New York. So, there was an additional-
Tracee Ellis Ross: What year was Basquiat?
Jeffrey Wright: ’96. So, there was additional care too. The responsibility that this is a badass, this is a serious cultural figure, and we’re going to introduce him. And so, I was like two folks who do not know him. So, there was great care, and particularly because of the way that his life was co-opted or attempting to be co-opted by various forces and things like that. So, I was very careful with that. But it’s just about trying to find something on the page that grips me. If I think it’s relevant, if I think it’s smart, if I think it’s well-written, if it moves me, then I’m hooked. Can I tell you one more story about Basquiat?
Tracee Ellis Ross: Yeah.
Jeffrey Wright: After the movie came out, a roommate of mine ran into me. It was about two years… Maybe a year and a half later, not quite two years, or something like that. I was at a party, and I had this roommate. When I first moved to New York on the Lower East Side, I lived… My first place was on 10th and D, DD, Alphabet City. I walked and start talking in Spanish. “Oh, you’re not Spanish, man. What are you doing here?” It was like, keep over there. We had an apartment on the fourth floor, two-bedroom apartment, that I got out of The Village Voice. Her girlfriend was a photographer, and I was waiting to go to NYU, to grad school. I didn’t have any money. I’m just hanging out, learning the city a little bit. Was doing a little bike messengering to make some cash and stay in shape. And just waiting for school to start. So, I’d be hanging out, roaming around, whatever.
Anyway, that was my first spot. That was August of 1988. A year and a half after the movie comes out, I run into her, she says, “Jeffrey, I’ve been waiting to find you, waiting to see you since that movie came out. You have no idea.” Her girlfriend used to use. She said, “You have no idea. When you were up on the fourth floor in our apartment… Jean-Michel Basquiat was on the first floor all the time.” Because there was a theater there. She knew from her girlfriend.
And she was like, “I couldn’t believe it when I saw it.”
Tracee Ellis Ross: And you never knew that?
Jeffrey Wright: I never knew that. And so, I moved to New York July of 1988. He passed away mid-August 1988. So, it was a very brief overlap, but it was like … Yeah. Yeah.
Tracee Ellis Ross: You were just talking about waiting to go to NYU.
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah.
Tracee Ellis Ross: So, most people are familiar with your work in television and film, but you have a big stage career. And I heard that you left Amherst College to enroll at NYU. Is that correct?
Jeffrey Wright: Sort of. There was a year in between.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Okay. And then, also heard that you left NYU to do Lorraine Hansberry’s stage production of Les Blanc. Is that true?
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah. I graduated Amherst, went back home. Did the play in Washington.
Tracee Ellis Ross: You graduated not in theater arts?
Jeffrey Wright: No. Political science. Politics.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Bring us back to that period when you were waiting, doing a little bike messengering. He still, when we were in Boston, biking around Boston, just biking around Boston. Just biking. Did I say that? Because I was not. Okay. Oh, but he’d come. “Oh my God, I went and saw a ship today.”
Jeffrey Wright: The USS Constitution. I was commissioned by George Washington. It still commissioned. It’s still in the harbor.
Tracee Ellis Ross: “Tell me about the ship.” I’m like, “Yeah, so when I was watching on my iPad…” That’s why you’re Jeffrey Wright. Okay. So, bring us back to the time of when you realized that you wanted to be an actor. Did you just know?
Jeffrey Wright: Well, I started acting my junior year of college. There was a young director who was a year behind me, put together an evening of monologues based on the novel, Bloods, about Black Vietnam veterans. Wallace Terry. I did that. People kind of went a little nuts, and I was like, “Oh-”
Tracee Ellis Ross: You mean they responded well?
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah, they didn’t throw rocks and stuff like that. They were kind of digging it. And I think, at that same time, I had started this class. And really, the first day of class, the first time we performed, I knew. But the seed had been planted many years before. And my mother was a lawyer for the government in D.C., like everybody… Everybody’s government. But she unwittingly planted the seed because she used to take me to the theater. Every big show that came from New York to D.C., I would see everything from Pearly and a one-man show that Avery Brooks did about Paul Robeson, to The Wiz, to Give ’em Hell, Harry! Which was a one-man show that James Whitmore did about Harry Truman, to For Colored Girls. Everything.
And those nights in theater, I was just like, “Look at this.” It brawled me. And I was the kid who was like, when the curtain went down at the end of the show, I was convinced that the world of the play was continuing back there, and I wanted to go back to… But I was afraid to do it. So I never did anything in high school at all. In fact, the guy who was in my class, who was the actor, who did [inaudible 00:24:30] and Eugene O’Neill and things like that throughout our time there, he’s a senator now. Colorado, Michael Bennet… one of the good ones. Very good.
Yeah, but it wasn’t until I got to college that I finally said, “Man, I don’t know what else I’m going to do.” I was doing what I was doing, but it wasn’t… Actually, it was a friend of mine, who took this class. And at the end of the class, they put on a production. I went to see him in that production, and I said, “Well, I can do that at least.” So, I took the class the next semester and that was it.
Tracee Ellis Ross: And then the bug had bit.
Jeffrey Wright: Yes.
Tracee Ellis Ross: That’s definitely not the expression. So, Cord wrote American Fiction for you. Well, he wrote the character with you absolutely in mind. He had no plan B. And it took you a minute to answer. Why did you choose to do this? What is it about the role and about this story that you connected with?
Jeffrey Wright: Well, it took me a minute to answer because I was living a very monk life at that point. My mother had passed about a year before I got the script. A little over a year. And I had the good fortune of being raised by two women, my mother and her eldest sister, my aunt, who’s now 94. She came to live with us. And my mother was a alien. And so, I had spent a good year or so at various times, cursing out insurance company reps, and various clinicians and dealing with that, and the kids, and all of that stuff. So, I knew that story very well. But it did take me a while to get around to being able to read it because I was underwater. And when I read it, I was hooked by that first scene because I thought it was so fluent.
I thought it was a conversation that needs to be had. It’s a conversation that’s being had in classrooms elsewhere, but it’s not had wealth. We lack a fluency in language around race and history and context, and we just don’t have productive conversations in this country. We’re just dumb, as a collective, about race. Although it informs so much of what we… Everything, all of us, it informs so much of our identity and our day-to-day lives. But one side, we’re scared to talk about it, sometimes on the other side, traumatized, everybody wants to fight but nobody wants to really engage, and problem solve. And I thought, although within the scene, it’s a difficult conversation, but still, the way Cord handled it was with a fluency and the clarity and intelligence that was really fresh for me. It was a conversation I wanted to have. So that set the hook.
And then getting in further into the script, the family stuff, for me, that’s the story.
Tracee Ellis Ross: How many of you guys have seen the film?
Jeffrey Wright: But it was really that stuff that just hit me intimately. And I say, “I know this man.”
Tracee Ellis Ross: Is there anything about playing Monk though? Is there anything about playing Monk in American Fiction that is different, or that was special, or the experience of American Fiction that was different or special, other than working with me?
Jeffrey Wright: Oh, yeah, it was working for you. That was …. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This ensemble, which has been honored recently, so glad with the Screen Actors Guild. Everyone. Everyone. The kid in the bookstore, I walked in there and said, “Yes, that is…” But, no, Tracee… Everyone just accepted that invitation with such open enthusiasm and joy, wanting to be there. So that was super special. Super special for me. This is a film… I felt myself getting stronger every day until the end. Which I don’t always feel. Sometimes I’m like, “Oh, man.” Just feel worn down. There was a growing momentum that you guys provided. You provided this buoyancy, freshness, joy, love. It’s cliche, but it was-
Tracee Ellis Ross: It was pretty mad.
Jeffrey Wright: It was pretty cool. And also the crew, who is the first audience, you could feel them listening a little closer, working with the degrees, more pride in what they do. The silence on set. A few degrees more silent. It was different. It was different. I had so much fun working on this film that it kind of made me love Boston, which is an absolute personal miracle. Because I have been to Boston many times before. Not so good. But it was one of those ones.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Yeah, I mean-
Jeffrey Wright: And I thank you, Tracee.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Oh, I thank you. So many of us… Obviously the script was extraordinary. It was on the page. And so, I know we all-
Jeffrey Wright: I blame Cord Jefferson.
Tracee Ellis Ross: I absolutely have the opportunity to hear Cord speak. What is on the page is also who he is. He has a facility with language and being able to express things that you were talking about, around race and nuance, that is extraordinary. And a lot of it is in the script. And then a lot of it is what was behind the script. But then there was, “Do you want to work with Jeffrey Wright?” And it’s like, “Duh! What?” And then, there’s actors that you work with that you admire that make you really nervous. There’s a thing about you that is just so generous that you are so at ease, that then in the middle of the work, you’re like, “I’m fucking working with Jeffrey Wright.” It’s like you catch yourself in the midst of it. And you bring this being-ness to what you do, that it is an absolute treat. What is your favorite part of being an actor?
Jeffrey Wright: Well, I think at one point, my favorite part was having this opportunity to kind of testify. I felt that so on stage… Particularly, that’s where it began, with the classroom, that I had an opportunity to step into the present, through the fabric of the present and present something. And that felt good. It felt right. And it gave me a sense of being.
What I have found more recently, what I’ve grown to appreciate more, and what is my favorite part of what we do now, is that I do it with other people, with other actors, but with other members of the crew. I love being a part of that whole organism. And I love the idea.
I remember when I was going early on, I was hanging out, having a beer. This was way… When I was a kid, having a beer, sitting on the back of a camera truck. And this is the way everything was shot on film. And there was a stack of… from the day, sitting on the truck. And we’re sitting there having beer. And I looked down and I was like, “Oh, man, that’s all the work today. That’s everything we did today.” And it was all condensed. All distilled into that little volume.
And everyone’s work is in there. It’s not just the actors in front of a camera. It’s the person who’s administrating in the office. It’s the teamsters, it’s the construction, it’s the carpenters. Everyone is there. And likewise, in the frame, when the camera’s on me and everyone’s work is focused on that frame, and my responsibility is to do my thing, and to calm myself and do it. And ideally do it well, do it efficiently. Do it in a way that maybe makes the crew lean in a little bit. Doesn’t say, “God damn, you working with this again?” you would be like, “Oh, okay, cool.” We going to get it. Get it efficiently and go home.
So, I love that that’s my part of the thing is to do whatever is required or asked within that frame. But it’s a part of what everyone else is doing. I really dig that. I dig the responsibility; I dig when it’s done reasonably well. And that’s my favorite part of it, is being a part of the whole.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Thank you for sharing all of that.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Okay. Well, I’m going to do a lightning round. Oh, no, no, no. What’s something about you that would surprise people?
Jeffrey Wright: That I don’t know, but… Surprise me. I’m surprised to other people. That I dig the water. A water guy.
Tracee Ellis Ross: I was going to say, you’re a surfer guy.
Jeffrey Wright: I’m a surfer guy. Yeah.
Tracee Ellis Ross: You’re a surfer guy.
Jeffrey Wright: Maybe that.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Yeah. Surfer guy.
Jeffrey Wright: Okay.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Okay. Lightning round.
Jeffrey Wright: I’m a pretty damn good cook.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Oh, there you go.
Tracee Ellis Ross: All right. Lightning rounds. These are just easy back and forth.
Sunrise or sunset, Jeffrey?
Jeffrey Wright: Oh, it’d have to be sunset. Although increasingly it’s becoming sunrise, which is odd. I didn’t even realize they had like a 5:00 AM sunrise. I thought it was at the end of the night, the sunrise. But apparently it happens at the beginning of the day as well.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Yeah…. it’s coming the other way.
Jeffrey Wright: Fascinating.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Yes. It’s really neat. It goes down and then it comes back up. Right? Crazy. And also free.
Bar soap or liquid, Jeffrey?
Jeffrey Wright: Bar soap.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Bar soap. Okay. Okay. All right. All right.
Okay. Okay, Amy. What’s your favorite place on earth?
Jeffrey Wright: Favorite place on earth is… It’s home at the end of the day.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Pool or beach? We got that answer.
Jeffrey Wright: Beach.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Sand. So unorganized.
Favorite book?
Jeffrey Wright: Favorite book? I’m going to go with an answer I gave the other day with Cord. It was a book that I read in school. And someone… Just before we were talking about it, was reminding me of this book and how much I obsessed over this book when I was in college. And it relates to Monk in some ways. It’s Goethe. The Sorrows of Young Werther, about this guy who’s madly in love, unrequited. It’s just like this love lost, puppy dog. It doesn’t end well. But yeah.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Favorite food?
Jeffrey Wright: I would say maybe Chinese. Yeah.
Tracee Ellis Ross: What do you order?
Jeffrey Wright: I order…. I order… What do I order? Like a go-to down, like a kung poa chicken.
Tracee Ellis Ross: There you go.
Jeffrey Wright: Spicy. Ultra spicy.
Tracee Ellis Ross: And lastly, what is your guilty pleasure?
Jeffrey Wright: My guilty pleasure in that regard is cooking shows.
Tracee Ellis Ross: I don’t know how guilty that is. That’s pretty great. If you told me like The Real Housewives of Orange County, I’d be tickled. Jeffrey Wright, you know what I mean? It’s like, “Huh? Interesting.”
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah. I’m probably not going to pull the list of my guilty pleasures out of my pocket. I’ll keep those.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Okay. Keep those with you. Okay. Cooking shows. I like it. I like it. Thank you.
Jeffrey Wright: No, thank you.
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