Exclusive: American Fiction cast interviews with Cord Jefferson, Jeffrey Wright, Erika Alexander, Tracee Ellis Ross and Sterling K. Brown
Currently playing in theaters nationwide, by Orion Pictures through MGM, is writer-director Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction. The film stars Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Sterling K. Brown, Myra Lucretia Taylor, John Ortiz, Issa Rae, and Adam Brody. The film had its World Premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the prestigious People’s Choice Award.
AMERICAN FICTION is Cord Jefferson's hilarious directorial debut, which confronts our culture’s obsession with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes. Jeffrey Wright stars as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a frustrated novelist who’s fed up with the establishment profiting from “Black” entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, Monk uses a pen name to write an outlandish “Black” book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.
Produced by MRC and Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman’s T-Street Productions, the film is based on the novel “Erasure” by Percival Everett.
Golden Globe-winner and Emmy-nominee Tracee Ellis Ross plays the role of Lisa; Erika Alexander will play Coraline; Tony-winner Leslie Uggams as Agnes; three-time Emmy-winner Sterling K. Brown as Cliff; Tony-nominee Myra Lucretia Taylor as Lorraine; John Ortiz as Arthur; Peabody-winner Issa Rae in the role of Sintara; and Adam Brody as Wiley.
Blackfilmandtv.com’s Wilson Morales spoke director Cord Jefferson, Jeffrey Wright, Erika Alexander, Tracee Ellis Ross and Sterling K. Brown on the making of the film.
