By Max Evry in New York City
Since landing on moviegoers' radars with the 1996 biopic “Basquiat”, Jeffrey Wright has carved a solid career as a character actor with wildly memorable supporting roles in films such as “Shaft”, “Syriana”, “Broken Flowers”, and an Emmy-winning turn in Mike Nichols TV adaptation of “Angels in America”, a part which he won a Tony for originating on Broadway.
Wright won a great deal of audience favor portraying James Bond's CIA ally Felix Leiter in the hugely successful “Casino Royale”. Now Wright becomes only the second actor ever to portray the character twice in the new 007 entry “Quantum of Solace”. The actor sat down with us in New York to discuss the part and his other upcoming roles on film and stage.
Q: How was it reprising the role of Felix?
JEFFREY: Second time was double the fun. I had grown up as a huge fan of Bond. When they asked me to be a part of it last time out I was thrilled. My agent called me and said, “They've offered you a role in the next Bond film, they want you to play some CIA guy, take a look at the script.” The script arrived, I read it and said, “some CIA guy, what do you mean? This is Felix Leiter, man! Felix!” Jack Lord sprung to mind, and Bernie Casey. So the opportunity to infuse some freshness into that was exciting, and then to carry on into the next one is just more of the same.
Q: Bond films can have very labyrinthine plots. When you first read the scripts do you ever need to call up the producer to get clarification on certain things?
JEFFREY: Yeah, they're a pretty broad palette… pretty big canvas that's being used, so you have to chart your way through it, but I think there's a lucidity about this one and a clarity that's a tribute to Marc Forster's handling of the material. There's also visual elements to it that are contemporary and new, almost abstracted and stylized in a way that's modern, breathes new life into the series. Like any script you have to chart your way through, plot a course, hope you follow it.
Q: In both this one and “Casino Royale” your character only has a moderate amount of screentime, but in people's minds you're a major character. What do you do to get the maximum impact out of a relatively brief role?
JEFFREY: Well, I think that his absence adds to the impact, because there's a mystery and an ambiguity about him. I like that, I like that there's not a lot known and he comes in with a purpose, but at the same time it could be that he's actually in every scene but he's just covert. (laughs) Leiter is supportive of Bond, and likewise I'm a supporting player in this. It suits me fine, because it's all for a much larger cinematic good that we're trying to achieve.
Q: Were any of the locations a new experience for you personally?
JEFFREY: Yeah I'd never been to Panama before, we shot in Panama as a stand-in for Bolivia. We shot my side of the story in Cologne, which is on the Caribbean side of the canal. Really interesting culture and history there. A lot of the folks who lived there were descendents of workers on the canal who had migrated from Barbados and Jamaica. It's an interesting racial dynamic at work there, and it's a section of the country that hasn't received the economic benefits that are evident in Panama City. A really wonderful relationship was forged between this virtual corporation that is this franchise and the local community and I think that can be attributed to the care that the producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson take in making these films. It also allowed for visuals that are new. There are no backlots where you're going to find these kind of visuals. When I was watching the film for the first time, I thought what a wonderful celebration of the complexity and diversity of the world, particularly for an American audience. We're so terribly isolated culturally. We don't have very much awareness of too much of the world, so through a pop culture vehicle we get these hints that multiculturalism is a healthy thing.
Q: Your character is the American counterpart to James Bond. There's a key difference in this film where Bond sees things very black and white, good guys and villains, whereas Felix sees things in more shades of gray, and at certain points the CIA is in bed with the bad guys. What does that say about America?
JEFFREY: What I've appreciated about the Bond films is there's always been a subtle social relevance to them. They've always commented on the times. Certainly the last eight years have not been the healthiest for America's image around the world. I think that has inspired a sense of cynicism that we managed to undo overnight November 4 th , so perhaps in future films the take on America and Americans will be informed by the work of the coming administration.
Q: Funny you should bring that up, since there was an interesting turn where Colin Powell, who you portray in “W.”, wound up endorsing Obama. That happened right as Oliver Stone's film opened and gave extra relevance to your scenes where Powell has conflicts with the Bush administration. Was that surreal for you?
JEFFREY: Well I'd like to think that General Powell saw the movie and was further inspired (laughs), but I know that is not true. But again, actors are far more useless than they pretend to be… if we choose the right roles, the right projects to be involved in we can make ourselves incrementally more useful citizens. I look for opportunities in which to do that. Obviously we knew in making “W.” that the release date was prior to the election, but if we can corral our egos obviously we're just there to add to the dialogue, add to the discourse. People were more engaged in this particular election than I'd seen in my lifetime. Anything that added to the discourse was good for the country. That there was that relevance to my character I guess it just proved that we were onto something.
Q: In “Cadillac Records” you portray another real-life personality, blues musician Muddy Waters.
JEFFREY: The movie's about the early days of Chicago blues and Chess Records, which is a record label founded by Leonard Chess. Muddy Waters was the first star of that label. He and Colin Powell are a celebration of the diversity and complexity within the African American community. They live on opposite poles of the African American landscape. The film chronicles the birth of the blues, which is really the birth of half the popular music of the latter half of the 20 th century and beyond. These guys were artists and heroes, and it's a celebration of that.
Q: Anything else you're working on?
JEFFREY: I'm gearing up to do a new John Guare play here in New York. It's called “Free Man of Color”. It's the most exciting play I've read since “Angels in America”. It's about New Orleans at the time of the Louisiana Purchase. George Wolfe commissioned it when he was at the Public Theater, so this was well before Katrina but it has additional resonances because of that and also post-election resonances. It's 54 characters featured: Napoleon, Thomas Jefferson, Louis and Clark, and at the center is a free man of color. It'll open early next year. It's a thrilling, thrilling piece.
"Quantum of Solace" opens in theaters November 14.