-Our next guest is an Emmy and Tony Award-winning actor
you know best from his work in "Angels in America,"
"Westworld," and "Boardwalk Empire."
He stars in the highly anticipated film "The Batman,"
which is in theaters and IMAX this Friday.
Let's take a look.
♪♪
-Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Police section.
-He's with me, Officer.
-Are you kidding me, sir?
You're gonna let him in here?
-Martinez, let him through.
-Please welcome back to the show our friend Jeffrey Wright.
♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Welcome back. -Yeah!
-I am very -- I'm not alone in being very excited about
"The Batman," but I'm also excited about this.
You have three different projects
about Frederick Douglass.
You have an HBO series and an audiobook,
which makes the most sense to me in the world because you have
maybe my favorite voice of anyone working.
-Well, thank you. You know, I guess,
you know, things are happening around us
at such a rapid and intense pace that, you know, I don't know
about anybody else, but I feel like Lucy, you know, trying to
wrap the chocolates, trying to take it all in
and understand what's going on in the world.
It's like, "Holy [bleep]
That's a lot of chocolates coming at me at a rapid pace."
So what I find healthy is, you know, to go back
and look at the history of things, shine some perspective
on events happening now in a way that, you know, helps clarify.
So went back and did a recording
of "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,"
which is kind of, I guess, a companion piece
to the "Lincoln's Dilemma" docuseries
that just aired on Apple.
But this book is just phenomenal.
And it really gives us -- you know, in the midst of
all the race discourse that's going on now,
it's really brilliant perspective
on some of the drivers that have
brought our country to where it is.
And Douglass is just brilliant, just brilliant.
So check that out.
It's really, you know -- because look, Black History Month
just ended, so what better time than now...
[ Laughter ] ...to check out Frederick?
'Cause it's American history, after all, you know?
-It is American history.
The biggest mistake I think anyone makes is slotting
black history into one month when it's, you know --
it's crazy to think that it belongs in one place.
-Yeah, 'cause, you know, black folks didn't do
the slavery thing by themselves, you know?
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-It took a village... [ Laughter ]
...as they say, or it took a nation.
So, yeah, so check that out,
if only for the appendix alone, which is just stunning.
He, like -- He, like, dissects the hypocrisy of slavery
in America like a surgeon at a hog slaughter.
It's just unreal.
It's just piercing. So, well worth your time.
Well worth your listening.
-I'm very, very excited to listen to that.
I'm wondering when you, you know, you've obviously worked in
big franchises before -- "Bond" films, "Hunger Games" --
taking on "Batman," this is, you know, there's such a fan base
and it seems a growing fan base despite the fact
this is a character that's been around since the late '30s.
-Yeah. -Do you have any anxiety
taking on a character like Commissioner Jim Gordon,
or is it just exciting?
-Well, you know, you want to do justice to that fan base
and to the history, to the legacy.
It is 1939.
It's 80 years of evolution of this thing.
And I think because of that but also there's something about
Batman that, unlike some of the other comic book heroes,
you know, he lives in a city that looks very much like
that city outside your window there, Seth.
So he's grounded in a way
that maybe the other characters aren't.
And it also allows for an interesting examination of
the things, the issues that exist in a city
like New York City, which, of course,
was the basis for Gotham in 1939.
And so you've got that.
You've got, you know, 80 years of fans like, you know,
kind of like diving into this thing
and they have a deeply personal relationship to it.
Unlike, you know, much of what --
I've been in some big franchises but nothing like this.
It really is singular.
I think, too, that people, particularly at uncertain times,
and we're kind of in uncertain times now,
but I think people are yearning for a place
to place their trust and to find hope.
And I think there's a real, you know,
there's a powerful opportunity for people to do those things
through these characters and through this film.
It's not -- They don't take it lightly.
I mean, they're intense. They're like,
"Hey, don't screw up with my stuff, man.
Don't screw -- You know, do it right, do it justice."
And so, yeah, there's that pressure.
But I think what we really tried to do was to focus on, you know,
the essence of what these characters are about
and what the franchise is about and do that justice,
and in doing that, do fans justice as well.
-You talked about how it's based on New York and, you know,
we have a New York leader right now, Mayor Eric Adams,
who you actually have known for a good long time as well.
-Yeah, I've known him for a while.
I first became aware of him in the '90s.
You know, I was in New York, and there were some pretty intense
police-brutality cases in the city at that time.
And one of -- and maybe the only powerful voice in blue
who seemed to be speaking on behalf of citizens' concerns
was Eric Adams.
And I was like, "Wow, this guy is really compelling."
And then, as it turned out, I moved to Brooklyn
about 20 years ago or so,
and he was the captain of the police precinct
in my neighborhood, so I made a point to go over
and, you know, just check him out.
And we, you know -- and introduced myself.
It's always good to have a cop friend here and there.
[ Laughter ]
You know, Batman knows that, you know?
[ Laughter ]
So we went over, and we've been, you know,
we've been friends since,
and now he's the mayor of our great city.
-There you go. Even a better friend to have.
Look at you. You traded up.
[ Laughter ] -There you go. There you go.
It worked out well. But, yeah, I did use him
as a reference for Gordon
because I've never played Gordon before,
and those who played before were not me.
So I wanted to find justification
for my playing this role.
And, you know, it's -- I largely focused on the comics,
and, you know, kind of the evolution of Gordon, you know,
from 1939, but, you know, Gotham --
Gotham's out the window and there have been three black
police commissioners of the NYPD,
and currently we have a black woman, Commissioner Sewell.
So, you know, there were touchstones for me
in justifying my place in this role.
And Eric was certainly one of those, yeah.
-That's wonderful. It's wonderful to have a role of
such importance in your very safe hands.
I do want to say before you go,
I think about you all the time now.
-Oh. -And I think about you one --
[ Laughter ]
One, I think about you all the time.
-I think about you, Seth, all the time as well.
-But I'm a huge fan of yours, but also the reason I think
about you all the time is we have a writer on this show
who also happens to be named Jeffrey Wright.
And in fact, I'm surprised that he has not come out here yet.
-But alas, I am here, and there can only be one Jeffrey Wright.
So we must battle to the death.
[ Laughter ]
-Uh, young man, you have just committed a most grave
and consequential error, my friend.
[ Laughter ]
-You know what?
You right. I mean, I go by Jeff.
Jeffrey and Jeff. -Uh-huh.
-Two different names, and you know what they say.
Two Wrights make a left.
[ Laughter ] Don't -- Don't think about it.
Hey, Seth, can I go? -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, I think you better. Give it up.
That's Jeff Wright now. -Jeff Wright.
-Jeff Wright. And this is the one, true Jeffrey Wright!
[ Cheers and applause ] "The Batman" premieres in
theaters and IMAX this Friday, March 4th.