Bamboozled

"As I bled to death, as my very life oozed out of me, all I could think of was something the great Negro James Baldwin had written. "People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become, and they pay for it, very simply, by the lives they lead.""

"Feed the idiot box. Feed the idiot box."

"The mission was accomplished. All of these people left the room thinking they would have real input. I was writing this pilot alone. Myself. Me. Moi."

"You know, I grew up around black people my whole life. I mean, if the truth be told, I probably know niggas better than you. And don't go getting offended by my use of the quote-unquote N-word. I have a black wife and two biracial kids, so I feel I have a right. I don't give a God damn what that prick Spike Lee says. Tarantino was right. Nigger is just a word. If Ol' Dirty Bastard can use it every other word, why can't I?"

"With Bamboozled, Lee takes a look at one of film and television's rarest breeds-the black television executive. His satire is based on the current lack of diversity in Hollywood, where 75 percent of television writers are white. And in most cases, the minority writers at networks are all working on the same show (in 1999, it was found that ABC employed nine black writers-all assigned to the same sitcom). In order to succeed in his position as a black television executive, then, Lee's main character delves back into the history of blacks on screen to revive one of the most popular forms of early entertainment: the Minstrel. And with the Minstrel, of course, comes Blackface-perhaps the most dreaded image in the history of American media."

"A: I had more trouble getting this film picked up by a studio than any other film. But that's expected given the content."

"Q: Are you worried that there may be public outcry from the black community about the content of the film?"

"Q: So who is the movie supposed to speak to? To black audiences or white audiences? Or do you think that it has a message for everybody?"

"Q: How did the actors feel about blackening up?"

"Q: In Bamboozled, you're not only talking about the history of racist media images, but you're also commenting on the state of the current media landscape. There are shows on television today that are the subject of your parody, correct?"

"Damon Wayans as Pierre Delacroix/Peerless Dothan"

"Savion Glover as Manray/"Mantan""

"Jada Pinkett Smith as Sloan Hopkins"

"Tommy Davidson as Womack/"Sleep 'n Eat""

"Michael Rapaport as Thomas Dunwitty"

"Mos Def as Julius Hopkins/"Big Blak Afrika""

"Thomas Jefferson Byrd as "Honeycutt""

"Paul Mooney as Junebug"

"Gano Grills as "Double Blak""

"Canibus as "Mo Blak""

"Charlie Baltimore as "Smooth Blak""

"MC Serch as "One-Sixteenth Blak""

"The Roots as The Alabama Porch Monkeys"