Lee Daniels cursed out the audience at Monday night’s fourth annual IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards.
According to Deadline.com, the lively audience at Cipriani Wall Street chattered so loudly during Daniels’ tribute speech to his “The Butler” star Forest Whitaker that he tried to shush them with a few f-bombs.
“Forest would like to hear all you talking through my speech, so shut the f*ck up,” admonished Daniels.
He wasn’t the only presenter to complain onstage about the Gothams crowd, as Julie Delpy threatened to set herself on fire to get their attention while presenting another tribute, to “Before Midnight” helmer Richard Linklater.
The Coen Brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis” won Best Feature, while “Fruitvale Station” nabbed Best Breakthrough Director and Actor for Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan, respectively.
“When I did research for ‘The Butler’ I became very angry at white people. That sh*t ain’t funny because it’s not funny what happened. … The lesson I learned when I did ‘The Butler’ was that Forest told me to keep my anger in, to not be a stereotypical angry black man. Because if I were angry and I saw racism, then it became real. I had to step above it and pretend it wasn’t there. How do you tell your 17-year-old son that you can’t go into a 7-Eleven because you’re African-American and a dude? But Forest helped me through that. He taught me a lot.”
Said Whitaker of his craft: “I’m just trying to remove the veil in front of my eyes … to discover. … The truth is not finite, it’s an infinite thing. Then I surrender to the fact that even if I live on some foundation of truth, that I think I’m discovering something. It continues to expand. Physicists talk about the universe is expanding… I’m going to continue to place my attention with you in unveiling the complexity of the human experience, the human soul.”
(Photo: PRPhotos)
