American Gods may never rid itself of controversy. Between this and the revolving door of showrunners, Starz just can’t seem to catch a break.
Anyway, not long ago, star Orlando Jones, who plays the trickster god Mr. Nancy, revealed that he was fired from the series by production company Fremantle, and it’s stirring up quite the drama. Jones reserved ire for new showrunner Charles Eglee, implying there was racial bias at work. He’s at least contemplated a lawsuit.
Now, Deadline reports that acting union SAG-AFTRA is expanding its investigation of Fremantle, which it was already looking into after Gabrielle Union rang alarm bells about her firing from NBC’s America’s Got Talent. They’re not exactly making their employees very happy, now are they?
And now, Fremantle has responded. “We welcome this investigation and intend to cooperate fully,” the company said in a statement. “Allegations without factual support should not go unchecked. We have already informed SAG-AFTRA that we are willing to meet to discuss the allegations.”
“Allegations without factual support should not go unchecked,” huh? Considering Jones is the second individual to come forward in such a short amount of time, I’m not sure Fremantle is in a place to be flippant.
Speaking on Sirius XM’s The Clay Cane Show, Jones was honest in his less-than-favorable impression of Eglee. “Culture vulture white guy is running around with a Black Panther T-shirt on talking like you black, acting like you black, thinking you blacker than black people,” Jones said. “You’re playing that whole game, which is the only reason you would run your ass around and say something is crazy as Mr. Nancy’s bad for black America and clearly there’s nobody around to correct you. There’s nobody of color around you who feels they have the guts to say, ‘Hey sir, you probably shouldn’t say that you write from a black male perspective. You’re like a 60 plus year old white man. Are you serious right now?’”
"If you ask anybody about who the season three showrunner is, the two things that they will tell you is that he is a white man and he thinks he’s black. He wears Stay Woke hats and Black Panther t-shirts and sunglasses. Dresses like old school Run DMC type of deal. Look at the pictures. He’s white, but it’s one of those white guys who talks like a black guy. I don’t have any problems with somebody who’s a fan of the culture, but that doesn’t make you black."
As for American Gods, season 3 is still coming, although it’s hard to picture it without Mr. Nancy. How will we ever do without his witty remarks and riveting monologues? I’m not ready to think about it.
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h/t The Root