Jeffrey Wright: “America Wants to Be a Beacon of Real Freedom, Not Hypocritical Freedom”

Actor Jeffrey Wright used a warmly received appearance at the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival to champion the idea of "genuine freedom" in the United States and beyond. Speaking on the Friday before introducing a screening of the 1996 film Basquiat, in which he starred as artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, Wright argued that the painter embodied "the freedom to realise who you are, whoever you may be" — the kind of "real freedom, not superficial freedom, not hypocritical freedom" that he said America aspires to represent.

Wright, who noted that Basquiat was "the son of immigrants," said he was gratified to have helped introduce the artist's work to a wider audience, and stressed the power of storytelling and film to foster a shared sense of humanity. The Golden Globe, Emmy and Tony winner — also an Oscar nominee — was due to receive the festival's President's Award at Saturday's closing ceremony, having been praised by organisers as "one of the most versatile artists of his generation." The double-anniversary edition of the Czech festival drew numerous other stars to the spa town, including Jesse Eisenberg, Juliette Binoche, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Harvey Keitel, cinematographer Robert Richardson and Dustin Hoffman.