<em>Westworld</em> Star Jeffrey Wright on the Lessons He Learned From Sports and Summer Jobs

During the summer of 1981, Jeffrey Wright was working at a community swimming pool in the historic Anacostia neighborhood in Washington, D.C. He had gotten the job through the Mayor Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program and worked with two other boys, one of whom would later inspire some of the mannerisms in a character Wright would play.

Wright was raised in Southeast D.C. by his mother and aunt, a lawyer and a nurse, respectively, whom he describes as “working-class professionals.” In 1983, he moved north, to suburban Massachusetts, to attend Amherst College, where he majored in political science and played lacrosse. After graduating, he enrolled at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, but ultimately dropped out. Wright now plays Bernard on HBO’s Westworld. He was recently nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

I spoke with Wright about the marriage of the arts and athletics, a changing Washington D.C., and how irrationality makes us human. This interview has been condensed lightly for length and clarity.

Lolade Fadulu: I know you were a political-science major and played on the lacrosse team at Amherst. How did you have time to act as well?

Jeffrey Wright: I started acting when I was at Amherst my junior year, and my lacrosse career kind of started to flop sideways after that. I got injured in the first game of the season my junior year, and then again, like, the second game of the season my senior year.

And the directors that I was working with at the time were not pleased about that. One of them gave me an ultimatum: “Are you gonna be an actor, or are you gonna be this lacrosse player?” It just flipped my psyche a little bit. My real