With his directorial debutAmerican Fiction, Cord Jefferson made a major splash.
EW spoke to Jefferson about the storytellers and films that inspired him and his critically acclaimedAmerican Fiction.
Jefferson found Lees fearless storytelling to be appealing.
Cord Jefferson; cast of ‘American Fiction’.MGM ; Orion Pictures - Design: Alex Sandoval
Spike never made a movie just to entertain.
Everett Collection
SeeingHollywood Shufflewas the beginning of Jeffersons relationship with satire.
It was like an explosive reaction in my brain, he says.
Spike Lee.Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Hollywood Shufflewas the first thing to implant that into my head, he says.
My heroes were people who dont limit themselves.
People who just want to make stuff, whatever that looks like.
Everett Collection
What they achieved inspired the path that Jefferson is following, one that sees no limits.
He sees his journalistic work at Gawker or his films in a similar way.
Jefferson is making things broadly.
Just like Baldwin and Didion did.
Squid and the Whalegoes from really heartbreaking, sad, tragic moments to moments that make you die laughing.
Frequently in the very same scene, he says.
This is the overall tone of the film I wanted to make, he explains.
Tone is a difficult thing, it can be a difficult balance to strike, he says.
There were three tent poles that Jefferson felt were integral to capturing the essence of Everetts book.
The first is that it needed to be funny because the book is funny.
What he did with the script of Adaptation served as a guidepost forAmerican Fictionsscript.
