Green Book is a movie about a brave white man who begrudgingly discovers that racism is bad. Essentially a reverse Driving Miss Daisy, it was written by the son of the actual guy the movie is based on and directed by one-half of the team that brought you Me, Myself and Irene. The producers mounted a full-court press Oscar campaign that ultimately ended with the Racism Message snagging Best Picture in a field that included both Black Panther and BlacKkKlansman. A lot of people are mad about that, perhaps most prominently Spike Lee. For anyone else already mad about Green Book’s victory, though, you may want to sit down for this one.
All throughout awards season, cancel-worthy tidbits involving the movie’s creators kept emerging. Star Viggo Mortensen felt compelled to use the n-word during an early promotional event. Director Peter Farrelly was revealed to have flashed his penis at the cast and crew of There’s Something About Mary as an ongoing goof. Cowriter Nick Vallelonga turned out to be a MAGA guy (shocking!) who once endorsed Trump’s famous, unconscionable lie about Muslims celebrating 9/11. That’s quite a portfolio already, but on Monday morning it emerged that the producer of the film also has some baggage. As the below tweet from writer Jenni Miller reveals–and at least one response confirms–veteran producer Charles Wessler was apparently fond of aggressively, condescendingly chiding critics who panned Green Book.
here’s the email I received about Green Book from one of the producers. I censored the name of the editor he cc’d, which I guess was supposed to be a power move? anyone who has received something similar, feel free to reach out. pic.twitter.com/LIiV4CEp3Z
— Jenni Miller (@msjennimiller) February 25, 2019
I too was contacted by this producer. Among other people, lol https://t.co/SqCvwVUUpt
— k austin collins (@melvillmatic) February 25, 2019
If you’re a critic who also got an email–or if you wrote a review on Letterboxd and received a strongly worded fax, tweet at Fast Company and we’ll update this post.