Jeffrey Wright on His Favorite Performances, Films, Foods and More

1. Novel that explains the world?

“ ‘We’ (1924) by Yevgeny Zamyatin, one of the first to be censored in the Soviet Union. It’s a portrait of the ways technology serves as a tool of autocratic control, a precursor to George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ (1949) and a stunning read.”

2. Relatable fictional character?

“At times, I feel like Captain Willard, Martin Sheen’s character in [Francis Ford Coppola’s] ‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979), waking up in Saigon and wondering what he’s still doing there. Waiting for a mission, you know? What Saigon is for me varies.”

3. Favorite museum?

“The Noguchi Museum in Queens because you get a real sense of [the sculptor Isamu Noguchi]. He honored his materials — and, upon leaving, I found myself more aware of materiality on the streets of New York. I could feel the stone.”

4. Unforgettable painting?

“ ‘The Arnolfini Portrait’ (1434) by Jan van Eyck. I went to see the painting last year at London’s National Gallery. I think it’s the allure — the magic — of that convex mirror in the background.”

5. Restaurant dish to try?

“The chicken feet from Chinatown’s Jing Fong. I make my own chicken feet on occasion, but these are the best in New York.”

6. Memorable monologue?

“When I was about 8, I went with my mother, my aunt and my godmother to see Ntozake Shange’s ‘For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf’ (1976). The Lady in Red’s monologue about Beau Willie holding the kids out the window was so moving, and that theater was tense with silence when she said he dropped them. Then there was a voice to the left of me that cried out with laughter.”

7. Greatest onstage performance?

“I can give you three. Cicely Tyson in [Horton Foote’s] ‘The Trip to Bountiful’ (1953). She was 90, maybe? And another one with someone of a similar age: Peter O’Toole in [Keith Waterhouse’s] ‘Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell’ (1989). They’d matured over the course of their careers and were bringing everything they knew. The third is Christopher Walken as Iago [in William Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ (1604)] in Central Park in 1991. I was in that show, and his performance influenced me more than any other while working.”

8. What about onscreen?

“Albert Finney in [Peter Yates’s] ‘The Dresser’ (1983). For me, it’s the film that most loves the theater — he gives a masterful theatrical performance that’s also a masterful cinematic performance. I used to watch it at least once before I opened any new play.”

9. Most visually influential film?

“There’s an Akira Kurosawa film, ‘Dreams’ (1990), in which Martin Scorsese plays Vincent van Gogh [in one of the segments]. There’s this idea he explores of stepping into van Gogh’s work. That made a lasting impression because it was such a fantasy realized.”

10. Best movie no one’s heard of?

“Robert Wiene’s ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ (1920), which is German Expressionism, and so surreal. American cinema has grown to have such a dependence on realism, but I don’t think verisimilitude is the culmination of performance.”

11. Show tune you know every word to?

“Oh, God. Probably something from [Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s] ‘West Side Story’ (1957). What is it? ‘Tonight.’”

12. Building to live in?

“Growing up in Washington, I used to pass the Watergate, this hotel that was also a residence, on my way to school. There was so much mystery and history surrounding it, and I was curious about what ghosts haunted that place.”

13. Nicest furniture piece?

“My bed.”

14. Top New York movie?

“[Stuart Rosenberg’s] ‘The Pope of Greenwich Village’ (1984). Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, Burt Young, Geraldine Page — oh, man. I watched it before I moved to New York, and it was one of those films that felt like an invitation to the city.”

15. Poem everyone should memorize?

“William Butler Yeats’s ‘The Second Coming’ (1920). Making sense of things now requires a lot of corroborating and triangulation of sources and means, but this poem could certainly assist.”

16. Most enjoyable fairy tale?

“I used to love reading L. Frank Baum’s stuff to my kids when they were younger, and beyond ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1900) — all his stories.”

17. Go-to chocolate?

“Anything milky and nutty.”

18. Recipe everyone should know?

“How to roast a chicken. I’m not afraid of spatchcocking or [using] a brick or two — sometimes I go that route, with nice results. But, and I say this as a spice fiend, simplicity is best: butter, salt, a little rosemary. Let the chicken work.”

19. Best play no one’s heard of?

“In 1989, I went to a reading of a play by Judy GeBauer called ‘Bobby, Can You Hear Me?’ about Bobby Sands and his hunger strike in a Northern Irish prison. When I walked out of the space and into the night air, my whole body responded in a visceral way I haven’t experienced since.”

20. Memorable live musical performance?

“One mid-90s night in Los Angeles, there was a benefit for Willie Dixon’s foundation at B.B. King’s place. It was sold out, but then the door opened and Kim Wilson from the Fabulous Thunderbirds let me in. John Lee Hooker performed, B.B. King performed, Koko Taylor — it was this parade of absolute blues legends just laying it down.”

21. Enduring Shakespeare work?

“All of the sonnets together. Variations on the theme of love.”

22. Role you’ve always wanted to play?

“[The Russian writer Alexander] Pushkin. I was exploring the possibility with [the director] Milos Forman and [the producer and composer] Quincy Jones. I’d heard a rumor that Milos had a script somewhere, and then I happened to meet him in Prague. We stayed in touch, but it never came to fruition. Quincy was somewhat obsessed with Pushkin. That was his alias when he checked into hotels.”

23. Favorite flower?

“The azalea, because it was my mother’s favorite flower to grow, and she grew them beautifully, as did both my aunts. It meant something to the women who shaped my life.”

24. Unforgettable building?

“When I was filming [Rian Johnson’s] “Wake Up Dead Man” (2025), I was in Essex, well east of London, and our base camp was situated next to these old Knights Templar [barns] erected in the 1200s. The site is called Cressing Temple. It was just the shape of their roofs and the tiling — it was one of the most graceful sets of lines I’ve ever seen, and so ancient.”

25. Nicest fabric to wear?

“Cotton. I travel so much and have had to streamline my wardrobe, so there are a lot of cotton T-shirts. It’s a fabric that’s taken for granted on many levels. I’ve been reading a book called ‘Empire of Cotton’ (2014) by Sven Beckert, and it’s grown my appreciation for what cotton has meant relative to the establishment of the modern world, and how the power of Black labor fueled our country’s economic foundations.”

26. City with the best style?

“Berlin. There’s just this creativity — and appreciation for both the aesthetic and the metaphysical.”

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Grooming by Chaz Hazlitt at Art Department. Set design by Peter Klein. Production: Hen’s Tooth Productions. Lighting director: John Law. Digital tech: Jonathan Nesteruk. Photo assistant: Matt Roady. Set designer’s assistants: Colin Phelan, Yonatan Zonszein, Jamen Whitelock. Tailor: Tae Yoshida. Stylist’s assistants: Ali Claire Marino, Casey Huang

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