Cord Jefferson, former staff writer for The Root, saw his commitment to writing Black content culminate with the ultimate award Sunday night, as he accepted an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his 2023 film “American Fiction.”
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Jefferson adapted “American Fiction” from the fantastic 2001 Percival Everett book “Erasure.” The film — which stars a tour-de-force of Black excellence, including Jeffrey Wright, Sterling K. Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross and Erika Alexander – is also Jefferson’s directorial debut.
The Tucson, Ariz. native started his journalism career following his graduation from College of William & Mary in Virginia. He wrote for several publications and had his run with The Root around the beginning of the 2010s. He sat down to speak with us about “American Fiction” last December along with Brown, Ellis Ross and Alexander.
In his television and film writing career, Jefferson has touched a lot of material we enjoy, including the Starz show “Survivor’s Remorse,” “The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore” and Aziz Ansari’s beloved Netflix show “Master of None.” He received the Writers Guild of America nominations ‘The Good Place,” but his first writing award came from his work on HBO’s righteously-Black 2019 adaptation of “Watchmen.”
But despite hitting the Oscars stage for the first time in his career, Jefferson kept his cool during his acceptance speech — making a point to shout out the production of smaller films; “American Fiction had a $10 million production budget, which it more than doubled.
“I understand that this is a risk-averse industry, but $200 million movies are also a risk. But you take the risk anyway,” Jefferson said during his acceptance speech. “Instead of making one $200 million movie, make 20 $10 million movies or 50 $4 million movies.”
There will likely never be a Hollywood without an overly expensive popcorn film about robots and superheroes, but Jefferson has proven that Black writers – and former Root staffers – have that Oscar-winning touch that won’t require anyone to dig too deeply in the couch for loose change.
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