How ‘American Fiction’ Grew Out of Cord Jefferson’s Own Experiences of Being Piegonholed as a Black Writer

Before he made his directorial debut with “American Fiction,” Cord Jefferson was a Tucson-born journalist and then a television writer for “Master of None,” “The Good Place,” “Watchmen” and “Succession,” among others. But now he’s also the director of the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award winner.

The film, which is simultaneously very funny and very serious, is an adaptation of Percival Everett’s 2001 novel “Erasure,” about a Black novelist who tries to mock the way he’s been pigeonholed by writing a ridiculously over-the-top “urban” novel full of the most offensive caricatures and stereotypes.

Jeffrey Wright plays the novelist, Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, who becomes unexpectedly successful when (largely white) publishers, readers and Hollywood producers eagerly embrace the work he thought was a joke.