Cord Jefferson

Talking Pictures

TCM and Max

Tv & Film

4.8 • 713 Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2024

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Writer director Cord Jefferson (American Fiction) and host Ben Mankiewicz talk life transitions, bravery, and family for this in-depth conversation. Jefferson charts his path from journalist to TV writer to first-time film director of 2023’s celebrated American Fiction. He shares the movies important to him and gives his take on the ending of Shawshank Redemption. FILMS MENTIONED: American Fiction Saltburn Promising Young Woman Sex, Lies, and Videotape Master of None The Good Place Succession* Watchmen* The People vs. Larry Flynt Do The Right Thing Jacob’s Ladder Clueless Cruel Intentions Dangerous Liaisons Punch-Drunk Love Shawshank Redemption Paths of Glory The Killing Eyes Wide Shut Full Metal Jacket* Pulp Fiction* Young Frankenstein Blazing Saddles* Philadelphia *Available on Max as of 2/6 (Availability of titles subject to change) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I think that all of this attention frightens me for whatever reason. There's all this
0:05.7	enthusiasm and attention on this very first project and that when I make the second one,
0:11.1	it'll be a disaster because people will say like, oh, he was a one-trick pony. He had one
0:14.6	good film and it was like a one-hit wonder. So there's just far more responsibility than I've
0:18.9	ever been asked to handle before.
0:23.3	Cord Jefferson might have to get used to the attention.
0:27.1	His first film, American Fiction, has been nominated for five Academy Awards,
0:33.4	including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay for a script Cord wrote. Before he became a director,
0:41.3	Cored Jefferson was a journalist, a pretty successful one. He was working for the online
0:46.4	publication Gawker as its West Coast editor. Ten years ago, Gawker was a big deal, widely read.
0:54.1	Cord, though, wanted something different.
0:56.8	So he walked away from that prominent job in journalism
1:00.2	to try something he'd never done before.
1:04.2	Write for television.
1:09.5	He started writing on a show called Survivor's Remorse.
1:13.6	After a dry spell, where he nearly quit and went back to journalism,
1:18.3	he started landing some gigs, the nightly show with Larry Wilmore and Master of None.
1:24.5	Then in 2018, he broke through in a big way, writing for three top-tier award-winning
1:32.1	shows, The Good Place, Succession, and winning an Emmy for his episode of Watchmen. Now,
1:40.5	Cored Jefferson is not merely a TV writer. He is a successful Oscar-nominated filmmaker.
1:48.5	Today, I talk pictures with Cord Jefferson.
1:55.4	I'm your host, Ben Mancowitz, and this is Talking Pictures,
	...

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