00:00Captain One
00:01I walked to school eighteen miles each morning.
00:03smelt the goats, plucked the chicken's plate, hooky caught fireflies,
00:05went skinny dipping in the watering hole, said my prayers every night,
00:08and got whipped with a maple switch twice a week, això That Was Life.
00:10This is Jeffrey Wright,
00:13the multiple award-winning chameleon known
00:15for his performances in Westworld, THE BATMAN,
00:19ASTEROROID CITY,
00:20and he stars as a disillusioned author fed up with racial stereotypes
00:24in the comedy drama American Fiction.
00:27The dumber I behave, the richer I get.
00:29After briefly appearing in the background of the film Presumed Innocent,
00:33Jeffrey played historical figures like civil rights attorney William Coleman in Separate But Equal
00:38and jazz icon Sidney Bechet, jamming with Indiana Jones in the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
00:44Time for you to play the blues.
00:47But Jeffrey's first big break came on Broadway in the 1993 production of Tony Kushner's play Angels in America.
00:54Not only did he win a Tony Award, but he won an Emmy and a Golden Globe 10 years later
01:00in a TV adaptation for reprising his character Belice,
01:04a sharp-witted gay nurse treating a homophobic lawyer dying of AIDS.
01:09You don't talk to me like that, not when I'm holding something this sharp,
01:11or I might slip and stick it in your heart if you have a heart.
01:14Then in 96, Jeffrey got his first lead role in a film playing Jean-Michel Basquiat,
01:20a painter who struggles with fame and notoriety as he climbs the ranks of the New York art world in Basquiat.
01:27Well, most people tend to be pretty, generally pretty crude.
01:31I really don't know that many refined people.
01:33In addition to portraying Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the TV movie Boycott,
01:37Jeffrey appeared in countless supporting roles.
01:40He went toe-to-toe with Shaft,
01:42he was haunted by repressed memories in The Manchurian Candidate,
01:46and in addition to playing Colin Powell in W and an eccentric scientist in Source Code,
01:52Jeffrey landed parts in four major franchises.
01:56First, he periodically helped James Bond as CIA operative Felix Leiter in the Daniel Craig Bond films.
02:03He joined Katniss Everdeen in a revolt against the Capitol as an electronics genius in The Hunger Games.
02:09There's always a flaw in the system.
02:10He exacted control over Atlantic City as the powerful and sophisticated antagonist
02:16Valentin Narcisse in Boardwalk Empire.
02:20I am deeply entrenched in the business of providing heroin to those wretched souls who desire it.
02:25And then came Westworld.
02:28Jeffrey played Bernard Lowe,
02:30an engineer with a mysterious backstory
02:32who works at a futuristic role-playing theme park full of ever-evolving androids.
02:38Consciousness isn't a journey upward.
02:40In addition to more supporting roles,
02:45like in Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch and Asteroid City,
02:48as well as The Batman as Commissioner Gordon,
02:51Hey!
02:52What's the matter with you?
02:53This isn't the way to do this!
02:55Jeffrey Wright has begun to take center stage again,
02:58playing an introspective inmate in OG,
03:01and an author who finds unexpected success
03:03taking on a stereotypical persona in American fiction.
03:07Editors, they want a black book.
03:08They have a black book.
03:10I'm black, and it's my book.
03:12Thanks to a career full of colorful, vibrant, and complex characters,
03:17Jeffrey Wright has proven to be one of the most adaptable
03:20and highly regarded actors working today,
03:23with a future full of endless possibilities.
03:27piece.
03:28Take care.
03:28Thank you.
03:36Take care.
03:38Bye.
03:38Bye.
03:41Bye.
03:41Bye.
03:43Bye.
03:44Bye.
03:54Bye.
03:55Bye.
03:55Bye.
