Honoree Jeffrey Wright poses with his Montecito Award during the 39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival at Arlington Theater on February 15, 2024 in Santa Barbara, California.
Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images
The 39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival ended on Sunday, but one of its highlights took place three days earlier, with a tribute screening to the last of the festival’s core filmmakers.
Veteran stage and screen actors performed Thursday night inside Santa Barbara’s historic 2,000-seat Arlington Theater. Jeffrey Wright — This is his first Oscar nomination in a nearly 30-year film career. code jefferson‘s american fictionthe drummer on race in America was presented with the fest’s Montecito Award after a deep and fascinating career retrospective conversation with the SBIFF executive director and avid Wright admirer. roger darling.
Wright, 58, was raised by his mother and aunt and never considered acting until he attended Amherst College, where he began to fall in love with it (and toyed with the idea of attending law school. (I threw it away), he said. He was then offered a full scholarship to New York University Tisch College and moved to New York, but he dropped out of school after just two months to attend the university’s college. lorraine hansberry I played around thinking that real world experience was more important.
After working mainly in theater for 7 years ( John Housemanrepertory company), with a few small film parts in between, Wright landed the game-changing role of gay nurse Belize. George C. WolfeBroadway productions of tony kushnergroundbreaking play angels of america. “That’s where my political science degree came in handy,” Wright said, adding that the show “was the perfect blend of my interests.”
Rather surprisingly, it was the very day he gave his notice. angels What Light Heard basquiatIt was supposed to be Julian Schnabelwas his directorial debut and served as Wright’s first major film vehicle. I auditioned for a supporting role for Benny, which Benny ended up playing. benicio del toroWright was cast as the artist of the same name, Jean-Michel BasquiatAnd he tackled challenges head-on, spending months painting in Schnabel’s studio. 28 years later, Wright thinks this way. basquiat and american fiction As a “bookend”. (And Schnabel revealed this in a celebratory video.) basquiat Coming soon to Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection (in black and white!)
Other major filmmakers also began searching for him.he was there The Lee‘s riding the devil and john singleton‘s shaft (exchange John Leguizamo For his role as a Dominican drug dealer, he said he spent a lot of time in Washington Heights learning the accent).after that mike nichols came calling and cast Wright in a 2003 HBO limited series version. angels of america He played the same role he had played on stage 10 years earlier. (None of the other actors in the Broadway production were asked to reprise their roles.) Wright says playing the role on screen was an entirely different job — especially since he had to play the role during the day. After filming, he spent the night on Broadway. top dog/underdog — and particularly enjoyed the opportunity to give a great speech while his character was being taken care of. al pacino‘s roy cohn.
In the two decades since, Wright hasn’t worked as much as he used to, largely by choice. However, he still starred in three films as James Bond (CIA agent Felix Leiter). daniel craighe was working with invasion when Craig was cast), hunger game and batman (2022 script batman He reminded me of a 70’s movie). Two groundbreaking HBO drama series, boardwalk empire and westworld (He says it “taught me how to work efficiently” and was “in many ways a documentary”).and two wes anderson Movies (most recently in 2023) asteroid city, where he delivers a word-perfect towering speech, captured in one shot. )
But every once in a while, Wright has given himself a chance to take center stage and remind people just how talented he is.Those include his 2008 one cadillac recordswhere he played a musician Muddy Waters;2018 andIn it, he played a prison inmate, was filmed in a real prison, and appeared alongside real prisoners.and especially american fiction, Jefferson’s feature directorial debut. “Everything about it was great, including the satire,” Wright explained. “But for me, the heart is family. That’s what drew me to it, because when I received the script, that was the life I was living.” In fact, just like Monk, the film’s main character, Wright had also recently been caring for his declining mother, who had once cared for him — “I was that guy for a while,” he said — and He says the film helped him come to terms with himself. What he experienced: “Making this film was part of a rebuild for me.”
Darling did a masterful job of contextualizing Wright’s career and making Wright comfortable enough to open up, then handing the proceedings over to Wright’s side. american fiction Co-star John Ortiz. Ortiz said he had been a fan of Wright for years, especially in the New York theater world, and had dreamed of working with him for 27 years before accepting the role of Monk’s literary agent. Calling the gig a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” and Wright “my artistic brother,” he presented a visibly moved Wright with a festival statuette.
