Jeffrey Wright slams racist backlash over his casting in The Batman
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Jeffrey Wright is pushing back against critics of his casting as a white police commissioner in 2022's The Batman alongside Robert Pattinson.
The Oscar-nominated actor, 59, played Lt. James Gordon in the hit 2022 film, which starred Pattinson in the title role, and included a supporting cast of Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano and Colin Farrell.
Wright, who is Black, said that it was 'f***ing racist and stupid' when online critics said the role should have gone to a white actor to adhere to the details in the original comic book.
'It's just so blind in a way that I find revealing to not recognise that the evolution of these films reflects the evolution of society,' the Washington, D.C.-born actor, who is slated to appear in the sequel, told Collider on Tuesday.
The Westworld star said he opposed the notion that his casting as Gordon was 'defiling this franchise' so as 'not to keep it grounded in the cultural reality of 1939 when the comic books were first published,' adding, 'It's absent all logic.'
Wright, who has appeared in movies, films and plays for more than three decades, said that he found it 'fascinating the ways in which there's such a conversation and I think even more of a conversation now, about Black characters in these roles.'
Jeffrey Wright, 59, pushed back against critics of him being cast as a police commissioner in 2022's The Batman alongside Robert Pattinson
Wright pointed out the accurate demographics reflected in his casting as the police commissioner in the 2022 motion picture.
'Obviously, New York City is the template for Gotham, ' Wright said, 'and if you look around New York City in the Seventies, or if you look around New York City, of course, today, it's a multicultural place.
'So, any Gotham within a contemporary film in the Batman series that's going to be authentic has to be reflective of a modern American metropolis. That's just what it is.'
Wright said that despite the pushback against his casting, he strove to create a modernized version of the Gordon character based off his core traits.
'The thing is, as well, I feel that I own these stories as much as anyone,' Wright said. 'Perhaps now, because I'm a part of them, I have the most skin in the game.'
Wright said he sought to align his performance as Gordon to the initial visions Batman's creators had for the character.
'Bob Kane and Bill Finger are two Jewish guys up in the Bronx, imagining heroes and villains in a city that looked like the city around them at the time, but I think what they imagined was open-ended,' he said.
Wright continued, 'I think that the success and the longevity of these stories and characters are owing to the openness of their imaginations and what they created.'
The Oscar-nominated actor played Lt. James Gordon in the hit film
Wright pictured at the NYC premiere of The Batman in March of 2022
Wright is slated to appear in The Batman Part II (which begins filming next year) alongside Pattinson and Farrell, with director Matt Reeves at the helm.
Reeves has past mentioned releasing a total of three films with the current cast, but delays on the second film have potentially jeopardized those plans.
Warner Bros. said in a financial report that the studio is 'preparing to begin shooting next spring' with an eye on a release date of October 1, 2027.
Wright also spoke to Collider about one of his past projects in the HBO series Westworld, saying that the show - which began airing in 2016 - feels increasingly like 'a documentary' in the nine years since.
'I think every day that becomes more and more the case,' said the actor, who played Bernard Lowe on the sci-fi series.
'What Westworld was ultimately centered on was, yes, the technology, but more so its usage and by whom and to what end. It was a show, ultimately, about power and control by the few over the many.
He added: 'That’s the thing that’s most concerning to me - the distillation of power and wealth into the hands of an increasingly small circle of individuals. That’s super dangerous.'
