- Jeffrey Wright said he was asked not to use the N-word while recording the clean version of "Ride with the Devil."
- He told EW that he refused to let people "be comfy in the darkness of their own ignorance around the language of race."
- Ultimately, "They found some other actor to come in and do that one word," he said.
Jeffrey Wright's latest film, "American Fiction," is a sharp satire on racial stereotyping and the various ways we commodify diversity and art from marginalized people. It's something Wright is familiar with in his own life.
During a roundtable chat with his costars for Entertainment Weekly (at the 4:13 mark), Wright recalled the time he would not censor himself while recording the airplane version — basically, the clean, curse-free version used on airplanes — of Ang Lee's 1999 Civil War-set western, "Ride with the Devil."
In the movie, Wright plays a former slave fighting on the side of the Confederacy.
"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."
However the movie's studio, the now-defunct USA Films, didn't see it that way. The Emmy winner revealed that during his session he was told to substitute the N-word with something else.
"I said, 'Nah. That's not happening,' And I headed out the door and to my car," Wright recalled.
"And they found some other actor to come in and do that one word, apparently," Wright continued, "so that the airplane folk would be comfy in the darkness of their own ignorance around the language of race."
"Ride with the Devil," which also starred Tobey Maguire, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Mark Ruffalo, and Jewel in her big-screen debut, marked Wright's first meaty movie role. He'd go on to earn numerous accolades in his prolific career, including an Emmy, a Tony, and a Golden Globe. He's currently garnering Oscar buzz for "American Fiction."
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