Cord Jefferson On His Path From Journalist To Emmy-Winning TV Writer To The Acclaimed, Oscar-Buzzed ‘American Fiction’ – Behind The Lens

So far, Cord Jefferson is having a hell of a feature film directorial and screenwriting debut. His first movie, American Fiction, had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September and came away from it winning the much-desired and often Oscar-predictive People’s Choice Award. Earlier this week, the film received five Independent Spirt Award nominations, and yesterday was named to the prestigious AFI Top 10 Films of the Year list. It is probably safe to say there is much more to come for the critically acclaimed film that Jefferson adapted from Percival Everett’s novel Erasure.

The movie focuses on a frustrated Black novelist, Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (played by Jeffrey Wright) who is so exasperated by the literary establishment’s embrace of Black stereotypes as “entertainment” that he adopts a pen name and writes an outlandish book that soars, against his wishes and intentions, to the top of the bestseller list. This is satire at its best, but also a compelling movie about family, love, responsibility and many other very human things.

Jefferson may be new to movies but he also happens to be a successful Emmy-winning writer in television, a former journalist, and has other significant career achievements. His Emmy came for an episode of Watchmen that he wrote with Damon Lindelof. His other credits include The Good Place, Succession, Station Eleven, Master of None and more with accolades including two Writers Guild awards and an NAACP Image Award. He joins me for this week’s edition of my Deadline video series Behind the Lens, where we talk about his inspiration to make American Fiction and how he got it done. We also talk about his career highlights including his years as a journalist and how that may have prepared him for the path ahead.

To watch our conversation and go “behind the lens” with Cord Jefferson, click the video above.

Join me every Friday during Oscar season for another episode of Behind the Lens.