AMERICAN FICTION is one of the most critically-acclaimed films of the year, receiving five Critics Choice Award nominations, including best picture and best adapted screenplay for writer/director Cord Jefferson. Based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett, the film centers around Monk (Jeffrey Wright), a frustrated novelist who is shocked when he finally finds success by jokingly writing a stereotypical “Black” story. What Monk thinks is a cringey, clichéd story turns into his biggest public success; film studios come knocking for the rights and the press is interested on the man behind the book. Meanwhile, Monk is also struggling to deal with his complicated family dynamics as he moves home to take care of his ailing mother (Leslie Uggams) and repair the relationship with his brother Cliff (Sterling K. Brown). When Coraline (Erika Alexander), a new love interest, comes into his life, Monk begins to see a light amidst the darkness; but will his difficulty dealing with the stressors in his life push Coraline away?
I had the awesome opportunity to sit down with writer/director Cord Jefferson, a William & Mary graduate, to talk about his incredible film. We discussed my obsession with the character Lorraine, his inclusion of so many female creatives behind the scenes, and his thoughts on AMERICAN FICTION being so well-received by critics and audiences.
Congratulations on the film. I absolutely loved it. What I was particularly struck by was the character of Lorraine. She burrowed herself into my soul. And the way that you were able to make me care so much about her in the two-hour runtime was so incredible. Can you talk about how you built that character and how important it was for you to have her as the heart of the film? When she asks Monk to walk her down the aisle, I was sobbing.
Cord Jefferson: That’s true. That’s right. That’s one of my favorite moments in the film. I’m so happy you said that. To me, coming from television, I think one of the reasons why I like writing television, which I was doing for eight years before I started making the film, and one of the reasons I like watching television is because the length of time that you get with these characters really allows you to burrow into their personalities. And I think that there’s a reason why a show like THE OFFICE is so beloved, and it’s because you spend so much time with those people and you feel like they’re your friends, and you start to really feel like you understand the layers of their personalities. And so when I started writing the movie, it was very important to me that I not have characters who, you know, just exist to serve the plot and just exist to sort of push things forward.
From a plot stance, there’s no reason to have the character Lorraine. Right? Like, you don’t actually need her to move to move the story forward. But it was incredibly important to me that that If I was going to have a character, that I flesh them out and make them sort of feel like they’re complex, layered, nuanced people with real lives of their own.
I think that for me… I think you’re right. I think that in many ways, she is the emotional core of the film. And my other favorite thing with Lorraine is when she hugs Cliff and tells him that he’s family, which is sort of really all he’s been looking for for years. And since he’s gotten divorced and been alienated from his family—his father, mother and brother—but also his ex wife and children. It’s very important for him that somebody just accept him for who he is and she was the person who’s willing to do that. I can’t imagine the movie without without Lorraine and the actress who plays her, Myra Lucretia Taylor. She’s just, in many ways, the emotional center. You’re right.
So I try to focus my coverage on women in film and women behind the scenes. I noticed you have so many great women behind the scenes of this film. Can you talk about how important that was to you and also the fact that, again, you had these female characters that were the emotional center of the film, which was awesome!
Yeah. Thank you. I mean, just to talk about the the women on the crew. When I was interviewing people and auditioning people, to me, it was just… being a first time director myself and being somebody who who had, I guess, an “underrepresented marginalized voice,” I think that’s, in many ways, the ethos of the film. And the project was inviting people in who aren’t necessarily always centered in this industry. And so when I started thinking about people that I wanted, Cristina Dunlap who eventually became the cinematographer, was the the first person that I met. I fell in love with her immediately and we sort of really vibed right away. I met with a bunch of other cinematographers, but I always came back and was like, no it’s Cristina. No, it’s Christina.
And the same with Hilda Rasula, who’s our editor, and Charmaine Cavan, who is Hilda’s assistant. I talked to a friend beforehand, who directed a couple films and some TV shows, and I was asking him advice. And he said film sets are places of a lot of ego. There’s a lot of people who are going to be vying for power on the set. And he said in my experience, as much female energy that you can get on set is going to make things go a little bit smoother. And so I took that to heart. And when I was looking for people to be on set, it’s not only women, but I was interested in women who might otherwise go under recognized because there aren’t a ton of women DPs [directors of photography]. There aren’t a ton of female editors. But I loved working with them.
As far as the film itself goes, I think that this is a movie where there is a lot of me in this film. And I think the character of Monk and the character of Cliff… even the father figure who looms pretty large despite the fact that you never see him. These are characters who very much are hiding themselves from the world and are dealing with a lot of feelings of anger and loneliness and alienation. Some of it is self-imposed. And I think that in my life, I have two older brothers, so I understand the sibling dynamic in the film. My father, whom I love very much, is an overbearing man and sort of has an outsized influence on my life. I came up in this very masculine environment where it was kind of embarrassing to talk about your feelings. It was shameful to say things like you hurt my feelings or shameful to say something like I’m afraid.
And so I, like a lot of men, built up this wall around myself and was very nervous about ever being vulnerable or appearing weak or afraid. And time and time again, it’s been the women in my life who have not tolerated that kind of facade that I built up around myself, and also helped me break out from that wall that I had built around myself. And so I think that it was important to me to show that reality in the film. We’re starting to understand it more and more, thankfully. But I think that there’s a lot of women in this world who deal with a lot of men’s issues, men’s anger and frustration and their reluctance to be vulnerable. And I think that we have to credit a lot of women in the world for helping men learn these lessons. And so it was important to me in the film to show that reality, which has been my reality.
It was important for me to surround Monk, who’s this prickly, isolated character, with somebody like Coraline, who’s very spiritually generous and funny and charismatic and warm and effervescent. The same way that Tracee Ellis Ross’s character Lisa is warm and effervescent the way that you see in the car when she realizes that it’s going to be her responsibility to break down the wall between her and her brother because he’s not going do it because he’s emotionally unavailable. Lorraine very much is a character who, as you said, is just a ball of warmth and helps Cliff break down this wall that he’s built for himself. So that is very much how things have gone in my life. And I felt like that’s what I wanted to portray in the film as well because I think that does feel like the actual reality for a lot of people and me specifically.
That’s so wonderful. And I definitely noticed that when I was watching the film. Last question for you. I loved how you poked fun at awards culture. And it’s so funny that now your film is so well-received by critics and by the film community and is up for awards. Has that been a weird dynamic?
It is a very, very vulnerable experience to make a piece of art and put it into the world. It’s terrifying and exciting, but it’s also very vulnerable. Especially because this film, as I’ve just said, is very personal to me. It deals with a lot of subjects that are very near and dear to my heart. And so there is a level of intimacy in this project that hasn’t necessarily been the case for some of the other stuff I’ve worked on. And so putting this into the world was a terrifying experience; the fact that it’s been well-received by critics and audiences and whomever is a thrill to me. It really is.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it felt good. I think that is the most exciting thing. The awards, whether they come or not, I’d be honored to win. But to me, it’s more about the opportunity to put something out there and to say this is how I feel and maybe you’ll watch this and feel the same way too. That, to me, is the is the biggest thrill in the world. Even making this film felt like a coup, even being able to actually produce the movie. And when I was done with it, I just thought even if a couple people like this, this will be a huge honor for me. And so now I find it hard to even let myself dream beyond that right now, just because it already feels so surreal that I’ve made a movie and it’s out and that people are liking it. So that is as far as I dare to dream these days.
American Fiction is in theaters now!