In Cord Jefferson’s feature debut, American Fiction, adapted from the Percival Everett novel, Erasure, Jeffrey Wright plays Monk a frustrated author and professor of English Lit, who has grown tired of the cultural sensitivities of his students (much like Cate Blanchett’s Lydia Tar) and the fact that he can’t seem to get his latest work published because it is deemed “ not black enough.” On a trip home, suggested by the dean, Monk reconnects with his dysfunctional family, including his reserved mother (the great Leslie Uggams), no-nonsense sister Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross) and black sheep brother, Cliff (Sterling K. Brown), who wears that moniker proudly.
The This is Us thesp appears to be having a blast playing a pretty-messed up dude who is just getting in touch with his gayness after getting caught by his wife in bed with a man. Cliff is a surgeon, but he’s also figuring out himself as a sexual being—a homo-sexual being. He clearly grew up in a homophobic household (if his mother’s comments are any indication). And it’s obvious that Monk and Cliff have a complicated past.
Brown steals every scene he is in and when he is offscreen we long for his return. This is no diss to the rest of the actors, who are uniformly wonderful but more a tribute to the complex, idiosyncratic, witty character that Brown has created. One need only watch his expressions to see that there is so much percolating inside this enigmatic figure.
Of course, the actor is no stranger to commanding any screen, big or small, having won three Emmy Awards, for his breakthrough TV role on This is Us, for playing Christopher Darden in The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story as well as one for narrating Lincoln: Divided We Stand. Brown also has a few SAG Awards and a Golden Globe.
Brown has just been nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for AF. A possible Oscar nomination may be in his near future for one of the most refreshing supporting turns of the year.
Awards Daily was thrilled to zoomchat with Brown about the film.
