Although there have been a lot of vampire thrillers over the years, very few have managed to garner the kind of cult following Wesley Snipes’ headlining Blade franchise has. However, as much fun as watching the movies was, it turns out, filming it was just as hard, if not harder. The reason for that seems nothing but a vicious feud between director David S. Goyer and actor Wesley Snipes during the Blade: Trinity shoot.
it seems the more intense the fight between the Vampires and the Nightstalkers became, so did the tension between the actor and director. It is hard to say who was right and who was wrong given just how wildly different the story’s versions are from the people involved and the people witnessing it firsthand.
Wesley Snipes and David S. Goyer’s Blade feud
According to the Blade: Trinity cast, Snipes rarely ever interacted or even came to the set for the shooting. Appearing only for his close-ups he left most of the shooting to his body double, while he spent the days away in his trailer smoking weed. Snipes’ co-star in the movie Patton Oswalt went into a little more detail about the incident in an interview, recalling,
“I remember one day on the set — they let everyone pick their own clothes — there was one Black actor who was also kind of a club kid. And he wore this shirt with the word “Garbage” on it in big stylish letters. It was his shirt.”
However, Snipes seems to have misconstrued the situation as Goyer forcing him to wear that shirt, which rubbed him the wrong way. Oswalt went on,
“He [Wesley Snipes] comes on and goes, “There’s only one other Black guy in the movie, and you make him wear a shirt that says ‘Garbage?’ You racist motherf***er! And he tried to strangle the director, David Goyer.”
As the situation escalated very quickly without anyone having any idea as to what was going on, things became extremely tense. As a result, Goyer allegedly asked for help from a group of bikers frequenting a bar nearby to come to the set with him and act as his bodyguards the next day.
However, instead of calming the situation, it sort of poured fuel into the fire and led to another talk down between David Goyer and Snipes which finally ended up with them communicating only through post-it notes for the remainder of the shoot. Snipes himself confirmed the story in an interview years later.
Blade Cast claimed Wesley Snipes was method acting
Most of the cast members claimed that Snipes stayed in character for the entirety of the shooting, including Ryan Reynolds, Jessica Biel, and of course, Patton Oswalt. The comedian also noted that he has actually never met Wesley Snipes, as the only time they had to shoot together, given Snipes’ scenes being done by his body double, Snipes responded to his greeting with “I’m Blade.”
Vampire Danika Talos’ actress Parker Posey once commented on the situation that everybody had a lot of fun shooting the movie except for Snipes. She added, “I came here to do something fun and stupid and big budget and I don’t normally get to do that kind of thing…So I’m just showing up, saying my lines, having fun with it. And Wesley isn’t.” In fact, his experience was terrible enough for him to file a lawsuit.
Wesley Snipes sued David S. Goyer
Wesley Snipes filed a lawsuit against New Line Cinema, executive producer Toby Emmerich, and David Goyer in 2005. In that, he gave his version of the story which differed wildly from the others. Although his primary concern with the movie allegedly was its “juvenile humor,” there seems to be more to the story.
According to Snipes, he was harassed, discriminated against, and defamed because of his race. In fact, he was not given any input to the cast, screenplay, or direction, which was a direct violation of his contract.
Combining that, with their failure to recruit a diverse cast and crew led to, “feelings of isolation and exclusion,” in him. However, nothing ever came out of the $5 million lawsuit, and it seems Snipes, too, has let go of the past. He noted later in an interview that it was what it was and everybody did what felt right for them at the moment, and
“At the end of the day we still did something great. Great people, great talent, great future. We laid the foundation for something bigger than we even imagined. That being said, we were the products of those that laid the foundation for us. So, hakuna matata.”
It seems that Goyer has not been able to take it as easy, though, as he claimed that the shooting was “the most personally and professionally difficult and painful thing I’ve ever been through.”
It should be mentioned that Snipes has had his fair share of run-ins with the law over the years from a high-speed chase to 3 years of imprisonment for tax evasion. However, with Marvel’s Blade reboot currently in pre-production, along with being excited, fans are hoping that the franchise does not face the same situation once again.
Source: SlashFilm
