Jeffrey Wright recounts the time David Bowie treated him and Gary Oldman to a private listening party

Q32:54Jeffrey Wright on his connection to American Fiction & Jean-Michel Basquiat

When Jeffrey Wright transformed himself into Jean-Michel Basquiat for the 1996 biopic Basquiat, he carefully studied the late American artist, spending long days in the studio trying to paint like him, and, ultimately, developing a strong feeling of kinship with him.

"He was drawing from a similar reservoir that I draw from in terms of … his references to American history through the lens of Black folks," Wright says in an interview with Q's Tom Power. "His homages to people like Muhammad Ali, Miles Davis, the Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta, those are all people and forces that are very close to me that I draw from as well."

But Basquiat wasn't the only artistic genius Wright came to understand better during the making of the film. He also spent a lot of time getting to know his co-star, the late David Bowie, who played Andy Warhol.

"He was the best — super cool, super generous," says Wright. "The first time I met him, actually, I was in the studio painting. It was an afternoon and the door opens and in walks David Bowie….

"He just kind of squats down next to me and he says, 'Do you mind if I watch?' And I said, 'Well, I think I'm going to have to get used to it.' We had a laugh and that was the beginning of it. He had meant so much to me, obviously, more so as a musician, of course — I mean, there were times in my life where David Bowie songs were the soundtrack — but he was so funny, so open, so supportive."

Unreleased music

Wright's most memorable experience with Bowie happened while he was hanging out with Gary Oldman in the hair and makeup trailer on set.

"David comes in and he says, 'Hey, you want to hear some music?'" Wright recalls. "He pulls out a cassette — I think we were still listening to cassettes at that time — and he plugs it in and it's his new album that has not been released, an album called Outside. And we're listening to this thing with David, and there's a guitarist named Reeves Gabrels who plays lead on this thing, and David is listening and he's air-guitaring to his own [song].

"I'm sitting there going, 'Oh man, it's the most badass album!' And some of the music is in the film because it was really, in some ways, so weirdly biographical as it relates to Basquiat's life. 'Poor Soul. He never knew what hit him.'"

After filming wrapped, Bowie invited Wright to his concert in New York where he was performing with Nine Inch Nails.

"He's singing songs from this album that most people were largely unfamiliar with," says the actor. "I'm sitting there and I've known this album for a while now, and it was almost like, 'This is my concert!' I don't think the film had come out just yet, but I'm like, 'Yeah, this is it. Me and David here, you know, just doing a thing.' 

"He was just brilliant, man. He and Dennis Hopper, and Chris Walken, and Gary Oldman, and Willem Dafoe…. I wanted to work like those guys, particularly Gary Oldman. They were all so cool with me. It wasn't a bad way to start out as a lead in a film."

Watch Wright's full interview with Power, or listen to it on our podcast for more stories from the actor's long career. He also discusses his new film, American Fiction, which is currently in theatres.

WATCH | Jeffrey Wright's interview with Tom Power:

The full interview with Jeffrey Wright is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Jeffrey Wright produced by Lise Hosein.