Cord Jefferson at the 96th Academy Awards he was awarded in the category of best adapted screenplay for the film “American fiction“. Speaking from the stage, he mentioned that many people did not want to work on his film. He is even more grateful to those who decided to do so.
Cord Jefferson didn’t just write the screenplay for the film starring Jeffrey Wright. He also directed it. Right after winning the statuette, he talked at the conference about the behind-the-scenes of making “American Fiction”: “(…) I was very excited to make this film. Everyone who worked on it was filled with passion. Nobody came to the set for money, because we had no money. People were there because they believed in it. Being here now with an Oscar in my hand is a kind of answer. Although it seems incredibly surreal to me. I am grateful for it,” Artur Zaborski reports for Interia straight from Hollywood.
“We didn’t have a big marketing budget. We relied heavily on word of mouth – word of mouth from people who liked the movie. They told others they liked it. I learned from that and kept trying,” Jefferson added.
The creator was asked about how he depicted Boston in his debut film.
“I wanted to show Boston in a different way than it’s usually portrayed in movies. I said I didn’t want any photos of Fenway Park, no photos of ducks or boats on the Charles River. I wanted to discover a different side of Boston. One of them is the blacks. I don’t really know them.” sees a lot on screen. In ‘The Departed,’ which I love, and ‘Gone Girl,’ which I also love, there are a lot of city views. But most of the people look like they’re working-class Italians or Irish. And there’s a whole other side of Boston that I don’t we don’t really see. I think it was important that we made a nod to the black community, which is kind of thriving in this part of the world. It was important to me to reflect the diversity of the black experience. We are as diverse, complex and diverse as any different group of people. So for me, it was important to show a side of Boston that isn’t usually shown, and to show the kinds of people that aren’t usually shown on the big screen. It is important to show diversity within diversity,” he explains.
“The lack of diversity means that people assume that there is one type of black guy who embodies the entire experience of being black. For me, it’s important to realize that this is not the case. No black person embodies the entirety of the black experience. Of course that we have black people in the slums; of course we have people who were slaves. But the truth is that on one hand there is a slave and on the other hand there is the president of the United States. Both are part of the black experience in this country. We have millions stories to tell between these two poles. It’s important to me that we can just show a different side of this part of the world, that we can show a different side of Massachusetts. We need to show it to people,” he adds.
“American Fiction” is a comedy-drama written and directed by Cord Jefferson. The plot of the film was based on the 2001 novel by Percival Everett. The main character is a frustrated writer who decides to create a satirical book about stereotypical “black” novels. Starring: Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody and Keith David.
Jan Tracz wrote positively about the film in his review for Interia. “Jefferson triumphs because he escapes from banality, can be sensitive, skillfully guides his actors, and does not try to introduce heavy-handed didactics. He also realizes that he is only a director who has a chance to outline some disturbing topics, but it is the viewer who he must draw his own conclusions. That’s all – Baldwin would be proud,” we read.