Jeffrey Wright Describes Backlash To His Race-Swapped Casting In 'The Batman' As "F***ing Racist And Stupid"
Actor Jeffrey Wright, who played a race-swapped version of Commissioner Gordon in Matt Reeves’ The Batman responded to backlash of the casting describing it as “f***ing racist and stupid.”
In an interview with Collider, Wright shared, “"I really find 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.”
He then stated, “It's just so fucking racist and stupid. It's just so blind in a way that I find revealing to not recognize that the evolution of these films reflects the evolution of society, that somehow it's defiling this franchise not to keep it grounded in the cultural reality of 1939 when the comic books were first published. It's just the dumbest thing. It's absent all logic.”
Wright then justified his own rationale, “What I love about our Batman is how gritty and granular and accessible it is. Ours is a Gotham that's born out of ‘70s noir in terms of its cinematic aesthetic — ‘70s noir New York.”
“Obviously, New York City is the template for Gotham, and if you look around New York City in the ‘70s, 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,” he said.
Wanting a live-action adaptation of a character to look like how they are depicted in the original source material is not racist nor stupid. Furthermore, it is completely logical.
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Or…. Hear me out. Replacing white characters thinking it makes a better story…. That sounds pretty racist.
Except that was the least of the controversies most critics had with "The Batman". If anything it was the slow poison of other items going in the film with regards to references to a great reset, the awful on the nose dialogue about elites from Catwoman and a variety of other off putting champagne socialist talking points and themes pumped into the film. The race swaping of Gordon was just a minor eyerolling issue. But the outright nerve of Jeffery Wright kvetching about this around five years later? After his checks have been cashed? Come on, knock it off and stop craping on your audience that you made bank off of.