‘American Fiction’s’ Cord Jefferson: From Gawker to the Oscars

The Last Laugh

The Daily Beast

Comedy Interviews, Comedy, Interviews, Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Tv, Movies, Film

4.6 • 661 Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2023

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

10 years ago, Cord Jefferson was blogging for Gawker. Now, his directorial debut ‘American Fiction’ is almost guaranteed a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars and he’s a frontrunner for Best Adapted Screenplay. In this episode, Jefferson traces his path from online journalist to full-fledged filmmaker, with stops along the way writing for ‘Master of None,’ ‘The Good Place’ and HBO’s ‘Watchmen,’ for which he won an Emmy Award in 2020. He talks about nailing the darkly satirical tone of his new movie that interrogates the expectations of Black artists, how his own experience in Hollywood influenced the script and the “emotional breaking point” he hit before doing the hard work he had to do on himself to get where he is today.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Last Laugh. I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast.
0:09.2	Ten years ago, Cord Jefferson was working as the West Coast editor for Gawker.
0:14.2	You know, basically my job.
0:16.5	Now, his directorial debut, American Fiction, is poised to get an Oscar nomination for Best Picture
0:22.2	and could very well win Cored the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
0:27.4	This darkly satirical film, which is based on the book Erasure by Percival Everett,
0:32.3	and stars Jeffrey Wright as a novelist named Monk, who tries giving the public what they want
0:36.9	from a black artist,
0:38.2	with hilarious and ultimately damning results, premieres in theaters next Friday, December 15th.
0:43.9	I got a chance to see it earlier this fall, and it instantly became my favorite movie of
0:48.8	2023, which really is no surprise given that before making this film, Cord wrote some of my all-time
0:55.0	favorite episodes of TV on shows like Master of Nunn, The Good Place, Station 11, and especially
1:01.3	the transcendent hooded justice episode of HBO's Watchmen, for which he won an Emmy Award
1:07.6	in 2020. So, while this is not an entirely comedy-focused episode of this podcast, I was thrilled
1:14.3	to get the opportunity to talk to Cord Jefferson about making American fiction and so much
1:19.5	more.
1:20.3	Here's a clip from the film's trailer to just give you an idea of its very unique tone before
1:25.8	we get into our conversation.
1:28.7	Malk, your books are good, but they're not popular.
1:32.2	Editors, they want a black book.
1:33.8	They have a black book. I'm black, and it's my book.
1:37.1	You know what I mean.
	...

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