This is Fresh Air, I'm Tanya Mosley.

In the new satirical film American Fiction,

The Loneus Ellison is a frustrated writer who can't get his latest book published

because editors say it's not black enough. So he decides to write the kind of black book they want out of spite, using every tired and offensive trope he can think of.

He submits the manuscript under a pseudonym, and to his surprise, he's offered a million dollar book deal.

This film is TV writer Court Jefferson's directorial debut.

He got his start as a journalist before becoming a screenwriter for shows like

Succession, The Good Place, Master of None, and Larry Wilmore's former late night TV

series The Nightly Show. In 2020 he won an Emmy for his writing of

episode six of Watchmen titled The Extraordinary Being along with Damon Lindelof.

American Fiction features a star-studded cast that includes actors Jeffrey Wright,

ESA Ray, Adam Brody, and Sterling K Brown.

Corr Jefferson, welcome back to Fresh Air.

Thank you so much for having me.

Okay, so the main character in American fiction, The Loneus, whose nickname is Mock,

played by Jeffrey Wright, is a writer in college professor who writes this book out of spite and the

books contents play into all of the stereotypes about violence and trauma with these over-the-top

characters.

But of course, Monk writes it under a fake name, so to add to the lies he says he can't reveal his true identity because he's running from the law.

I want to play a scene.

It is Monk and his editor played by John Ortiz and they're talking with Paula from one of the publishing houses over speakerphone.

Let's listen.

...