Jeffrey Wright

Shaft was a pop culture figure along t he lines of, I guess, Dirty Harry - except that he wasn't as much of a racist. So yeah, I was always a fan.

I like New York because you're kind of forced to smell everybody else's funk. So it keeps you biologically attached to the world around you.

I like to do theater and hopefully be effective. Most actors, at least contemporary actors of my generation, can't do it. They don't have the chops.

I think the best work flows out of a collaborative environment.

I'm a big action junkie. I grew up on the '80s action movies - the bad ones and the good ones.

Well, I actually wrote her a letter a couple of days ago congratulating her. The tone I tried to convey in the letter is, look, you are a part of a great American historical process.