American Fiction | 'First Look' Featurette | Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross

  • 8 months ago
Take a look at the latest featurette for American Fiction going over the premise of the story and how it ties into modernity.

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 movie stars Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Keith David, with Issa Rae and Sterling K. Brown. American Fiction is written and directed by Cord Jefferson based on the 'Erasure' novel by Percival Everett. The film is produced by Ben LeClair, p.g.a., Nikos Karamigios, p.g.a., Cord Jefferson, p.g.a., Jermaine Johnson, p.g.a with the movie executive produced by Rian Johnson, Ram Bergman, Percival Everett, and Michael Bowes.

American Fiction is in theaters now.
Transcript
00:00 Monk, your books are good, but they're not popular.
00:03 Monk is a writer, but for those few people out there who still read,
00:07 they don't like what he's offering.
00:09 Editors, they want a black book.
00:11 They have a black book. I'm black, and it's my book.
00:14 You know what I mean.
00:15 He doesn't want to be pigeonholed in terms of the stories that he writes.
00:19 Look at what they publish. Look at what they expect us to write.
00:22 He's sick of the racial politics of being a black artist in the world.
00:26 I just want to rub their noses in it.
00:28 [MUSIC]
00:30 So, he pulls a prank and writes a new novel.
00:33 Hello.
00:34 I be standing outside in the night.
00:36 Deadbeat Dan's, Rapper's, Crack.
00:38 You said you wanted black stuff. That's black, right?
00:41 I see what you're doing.
00:42 And it becomes the best-selling novel of his career.
00:46 We believe Mr. Lee has written a bestseller.
00:48 It's a joke. The most lucrative joke you've ever told.
00:50 But then he sees folks like, "This is amazing."
00:53 Is this based on your actual life?
00:55 Yeah. You think some bitch-ass college boy can come up with that shit?
00:59 No, no. No, I don't.
01:00 Then drives him up the wall.
01:02 [MUSIC]
01:04 Your books change people's lives.
01:06 They're offering $4 million for the movie, right?
01:08 Yes!
01:09 The dumber I behave, the richer I get.
01:11 [MUSIC]
01:12 This film explores identity, culture, race, and family in a way that I think is really interesting.
01:18 [MUSIC]
01:20 This has gone too far.
01:21 Stag Arlie is still on the run from authorities.
01:24 You haven't done anything. It's not like they can arrest you.
01:26 I think it's going to be really gratifying for people to gather in a theater and watch this.
01:31 [MUSIC]
01:33 [MUSIC]

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