14 facts you might not know about 'American Fiction'

Cord Jefferson wrote and directed American Fiction. It was his debut as a film director, but that’s not all. This was also his first screenplay, making it a directing and writing debut for Jefferson.

Before writing American Fiction, Jefferson worked in television. He wrote on shows such as The Good Place and Succession. However, his writing career started even before that. Jefferson was a journalist prior to getting into television, including serving as an editor for Gawker.

The Ellisons, the family at the center of American Fiction, are from Boston. Monk, the lead character, lives in Los Angeles now, and his brother Cliff lives in Tucson. As a TV writer, Jefferson is unsurprisingly familiar with LA, but that’s not all. He spent most of his childhood in Tucson.

Where did Jefferson get the names of the books up for the Literary Awards? He dipped into his childhood once more. The books have names borrowed from and inspired by band names Jefferson’s junior high and high school friends were in.

American Fiction is based on Erasure, a 2001 novel by Percival Everett, a writer and professor. Everett had denied the film rights to his book a few times, but Jefferson had more luck. After talking to Jefferson, Everett let him have the rights, temporarily, for free, allowing Jefferson the chance to get the film into production.

While writing his screenplay, Jefferson had one actor in mind for Monk: Jeffrey Wright. Fortunately, that worked out for him. Wright did indeed end up playing Monk and was attached before the film even had a title.

Jefferson wanted to make sure that when we see Monk working on his “spite” novel, it is not your typical inert scene of a writer typing away. Thus, he decided to have a scene where we saw what Monk was writing manifested in the character in front of him. Jefferson wrote the scene to highlight the silly dialog in Monk’s story. Then, he cast Keith David and Okieriete Onaodowan in the roles. Jefferson said the two made the scene seem less silly and possibly even good, which Jefferson appreciated as the director.

Jefferson grew up listening to a lot of jazz, so he wanted to fill the soundtrack with jazz songs. He was surprised to find that not everybody finds jazz as soothing and calming as he does. Notably, there is no Thelonious Monk on the soundtrack, even though that is who Monk is named after in the story.

Well, a spoiler is coming, though you’ve already read this far. Tracee Ellis Ross is second-billed as Lisa, Monk’s sister. This is despite the fact she is in the movie for all of eight minutes of screen time. That’ll happen when your character dies in the first act of the film.

American Fiction made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival, aka TIFF. It was well-received out of the gate. The film won the People’s Choice Award at TIFF, an award that has tended to presage success. Other than the Lebanese film Where Do We Go Now? in 2011, the winner of the People’s Choice Award at TIFF has been a Best Picture nominee at the Oscars every year since 2008.

Yes, American Fiction earned a Best Picture nomination from the Academy Awards. It is one of five awards for which the movie was nominated. Wright was nominated for Best Actor, while Sterling K. Brown was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Notably, Jefferson’s first screenplay also earned a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

You have likely heard of the idea of “Oscar bait.” That would be a film that clearly seems designed to try and win an Oscar, usually a melodramatic movie or some “tragedy porn.” Jefferson’s well aware of this, as the phrase “Oscar bait” is actually used in American Fiction. That makes it the first movie to use the term “Oscar bait” to get a Best Picture nomination from the Oscars.

American Fiction has received nominations from a litany of awards shows and critics groups. There have even been some wins in the mix. Jefferson has won screenplay awards from the Critics’ Choice, Independent Spirit, and BAFTAs. Some actors have also won. Wright won at the Independent Spirit Awards, and Brown won from the African-American Film Critics Association and the Black Film Critics Circle.

Oppenheimer won seven Oscars, and Poor Things won four. Neither took home Best Adapted Screenplay, though. Jefferson's debut screenplay for American Fiction won that award, making Jefferson an Oscar winner.