American Fiction is an upcoming film written and directed by Cord Jefferson, based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett. The film stars Jeffrey Wright as Monk Ellison, a black writer who adopts a white pseudonym in order to achieve commercial success. The film is a satirical look at the publishing industry and race relations in America.
Introduction!
JACQUELINE: First thing I want to go ahead and say is after coming off of the audience award winning picture at TIFF, that was such a great moment. I’m glad that you’re finally going to get audiences to see this trailer. So, tell us a little bit about it, and if you don’t mind let us take a peek.
CORD: Yeah, yeah. You know, I will let the trailer speak for itself. I will say that it has gone through a rigorous process. We’ve been working on it for months now. And so, I am very, very thrilled to share with everybody. I think that hopefully it, you know, [laugh] I want to let the trailer speak for itself. I really love it. We’ve sort of gone through a bunch of different iterations, and we’ve finally landed on one that we’re all thrilled and excited about. So yeah, without further ado, let’s watch the trailer.
Q.
JACQUELINE: Talk about how you came across the book and why you wanted to adapt it as your first feature.
A.
CORD: Yeah, so I first heard about the novel, reading a review for a different book in December of 2020. That book was called Interior Chinatown, which is about to be adapted for Hulu, I believe. And in the review, it said this novel has a satire reminiscent of Percival Everett’s Erasure, and I’d never heard of Erasure. So, I went and bought it, and kind of just devoured it over Christmas break in December of 2020. And within 20 pages, I knew I wanted to adapt the screenplay. Within 50 pages, I was already reading the character of Monk in Jeffrey Wright’s voice. That’s how early I sort of started thinking of Jeffrey for it.
And by the time that I was done, I just really, I knew that I wanted to direct it. I don’t know if if you’ve had this experience, but it just there was so many overlaps with my personal life and sort of, like, things that I’d been thinking about for literally decades, that when I was reading it, it really felt like somebody had written me a gift personally. Like, somebody had to write Cord Jefferson a novel. And so, you know, when I stepped away from it, in the reading of it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And then I was done reading it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Just felt like it was electrified. So, yeah, a piece of art, has never resonated with me so deeply.
Q.
JACQUELINE: I feel like that is also something we don’t get to see, adult Black families and in moments of both grief and, like, triumph. It seems like it’s either we’re having a triumphant moment or complete dysfunction. That mix of dysfunction and successes is something that you don’t often see. Was that inspired by your family or things you sort of saw growing up, or was that something that you just brought to this story?
A.
CORD: No, it’s absolutely — I mean, I think that the thing about life and all of our lives is that life is neither comedy nor drama, right? It’s sort of like, even in my lowest lows, I’ve found ways to laugh and find joy and love people, and sort of have great moments.
And even in my highest of highs, there’s been, you know, bits of tragedy and misery associated. You know, I think that life is ups and downs. And so, for me, the thing that I was trying to get at was that sort of, you know, even in the worst of times, you know, and it’s not even in spite of, but because of. We need to find ways to laugh.
We need to find ways to have joy, because, I mean, especially nowadays with the way that the world is, if we don’t find ways to laugh and have fun, then really all is lost.
And so I think that to me was incredibly important, was reflecting that, you know, even in the lowest of times, there’s still moments of joy that you have to find and pursue, because if you can’t do that, then you sort of, you know, then we’ve really lost the plot.
Written for the Screen and Directed by: Cord Jefferson
Based upon the novel ‘Erasure’ by: Percival Everett
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Genres |
Comedy/Drama |
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Rating |
R for language throughout, some drug use, sexual references and brief violence |
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Starring |
Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Keith David with Issa Rae and Sterling K. Brown |
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Directed By |
Cord Jefferson |
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Produced By |
Ben LeClair, p.g.a., Nikos Karamigios, p.g.a., Cord Jefferson, p.g.a., Jermaine Johnson, p.g.a. |
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Executive Produced By |
Rian Johnson, Ram Bergman, Percival Everett, Michael Bowes |
