Wesley Snipes was once one of the biggest stars in Hollywood following the successful Blade movies (or at least a couple of successful Blade movies) but a number of interesting rumors have surfaced over the years, especially regarding Blade: Trinity that make the production on that film sound completely insane. However, Wesley Snipes himself is now making a point to correct the record, claiming that the most crazy rumors about him are not true.
The biggest stories come from actor and comedian Patton Oswalt, who played the role of Hedges in the film, who, back in 2012, claimed that Wesley Snipes and director David S. Goyer nearly had a physical altercation, and that Snipes got to a point where he wouldn't even speak with people outside of shooting. In a recent interview with The Guardian, Snipes hits back at the rumors, starting off by saying that if he and Goyer had gotten physical, it's likely something we'd all know about...
Let me tell you one thing. If I had tried to strangle David Goyer, you probably wouldn’t be talking to me now. A black guy with muscles strangling the director of a movie is going to jail, I guarantee you.
In Patton Oswalt's original interview he says that Wesley Snipes "tried to strangle" the director. It's unclear just how literal it's meant to be taken. Though Oswalt does also say that Goyer, at one point, hired some bikers to pretend to be his personal security as a way to get Snipes to back off. Whether or not there was nearly an actual strangling or not, it's clear that Oswalt is saying there were some heated issues between the two.
For his part, Wesley Snipes says that, certainly, the claim is untrue and he calls into question Patton Oswalt as the source, jokingly calling him "A reliable authority on me." Also, while Snipes doesn't directly refute the story that he would only communicate with the crew via Post-It note when on set, he does so in a way that makes it clear he's annoyed not so much with the rumor itself as the fact that so many people seemed willing to believe it without evidence. Snipes goes on...
This is part of the challenges that we as African Americans face here in America – these microaggressions. The presumption that one white guy can make a statement and that statement stands as true! Why would people believe his version is true? Because they are predisposed to believing the black guy is always the problem. And all it takes is one person, Mr Oswalt, who I really don’t know. I can barely remember him on the set, but it’s fascinating that his statement alone was enough to make people go: ‘Yeah, you know Snipes has got a problem.’
Wesley snipes points out that he was a producer on Blade: Trinity, and as such he had control over many aspects of the film, including who the director was, so if he'd had a problem with David Goyer, there was a remedy for that.does the real truth lie on one side or the other, or someplace in between? We'll likely never really know.
