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Interview: Quantum Of Solace's Jeffrey WrightBy Katey Rich: 2008-11-14 14:25:11
You can't let the British have all the fun in the James Bond movies, which is where Jeffrey Wright, very importantly, comes in. In Quantum of Solace he reprises his role as Felix Leiter, the CIA agent who would be the American version of Bond-- if, this time around, he weren't kind of in cahoots with the bad guys. You know us Americans, always finding ourselves on the wrong side of the tracks.Jeffrey Wright, as the American representative for Bond in New York, talked to a small group of journalists about his role as Felix, the fact that he's such a good spy he may be in every single scene and you'd never know it, and whether or not he thinks Colin Powell pays any attention to him. How was it reprising the role of Felix Leiter? Second time was double the fun. I had grown up as a huge fan of Bond. When they asked me to be a part of it last time out I was thrilled. My agent called me and said, 'They’ve offered you a role in the next Bond film, they want you to play some CIA guy, take a look at the script.' The script arrived, I read it and said, 'Some CIA guy, what do you mean? This is Felix Leiter, man! Felix!' In both this one and “Casino Royale” your character only has a moderate amount of screentime, but in people’s minds you’re a major character. What do you do to get the maximum impact out of a relatively brief role? Well, I think that his absence adds to the impact, because there’s a mystery and an ambiguity about him. I like that, I like that there’s not a lot known and he comes in with a purpose, but at the same time it could be that he’s actually in every scene but he’s just covert. (laughs) Leiter is supportive of Bond, and likewise I’m a supporting player in this. It suits me fine, because it’s all for a much larger cinematic good that we’re trying to achieve. Your character is the American counterpart to James Bond. There’s a key difference in this film where Bond sees things very black and white, good guys and villains, whereas Felix sees things in more shades of gray, and at certain points the CIA is in bed with the bad guys. What does that say about America? What I’ve appreciated about the Bond films is there’s always been a subtle social relevance to them. They’ve always commented on the times. Certainly the last eight years have not been the healthiest for Americas image around the world. I think that has inspired a sense of cynicism that we managed to undo overnight November 4th, so perhaps in future films the take America and Americans will be informed by the work of the coming administration. Was it strange for you when Colin Powell, who you played in W., endorsed Barack Obama right after the movie came out? Well I’d like to think that General Powell saw the movie and was further inspired (laughs), but I know that is not true. But again, actors are far more useless than they pretend to be… if we choose the right roles, the right projects to be involved in we can make ourselves incrementally more useful citizens. I look for opportunities in which to do that. Obviously we knew in making W. that the release date was prior to the election, but if we can corral our egos obviously we’re just there to add to the dialogue, add to the discourse. People were more engaged in this particular election than I’d seen in my lifetime. Anything that added to the discourse was good for the country. That there was that relevance to my character I guess it just proved that we were onto something. In Cadillac Records you portray another real-life personality, blues musician Muddy Waters. Can you tell us about the movie? The movie’s about the early days of Chicago blues and Chess Records, which is a record label founded by Leonard Chess. Muddy Waters was the first star of that label. The film chronicles the birth of the blues, which is really the birth of half the popular music of the latter half of the 20th century and beyond. These guys were artists and heroes, and it’s a celebration of that.
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