Wesley Snipes may have long since moved on from his time playing Marvel’s Blade, but it’s a period he has had to repeatedly revisit in the years since, and not for the best of reasons, either.
Released in 2004, Blade: Trinity was to be the third and final installment for this iteration of the vampire hunter’s movie series as he took on the ultimate enemy – Dracula (Dominic Purcell). Unable to complete his quest to rid the world of the vampire kind’s progenitor alone, Blade reluctantly enlists the help of several fellow hunters, including Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds), Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel) and Hedges – played by then relatively unknown comedian, Patton Oswalt.
It was the last of these three co-stars that would eventually speak out about their personal experiences on set while making Trinity, with particular emphasis placed on Snipes’ behavior throughout the production. In addition to recalling how the film’s lead would spend most of his time between shoots smoking weed in his trailer, Patton describes a particularly heated moment when Snipes, accusing director David S. Goyer of racism, physically assaulted him.
No charges have ever been filed in relation to the supposed crime, and the actor, in a recent interview with The Guardian, fervently denies that any such situation ever took place. When posed with a retelling of Patton’s allegations, Snipes replied with:
Let me tell you one thing. If I had tried to strangle David Goyer, you probably wouldn’t be talking to me now. A black guy with muscles strangling the director of a movie is going to jail, I guarantee you. This is part of the challenges that we as African Americans face here in America — these microaggressions. The presumption that one white guy can make a statement and that statement stands as true! Why would people believe his version is true? Because they are predisposed to believing the black guy is always the problem.
In regard to Oswalt, he follows up on his defending statement by admitting he barely remembers him on set, though muses how it’s “fascinating that his statement alone was enough to make people go: ‘Yeah, you know Snipes has got a problem.'” Ultimately, he also mentions crew members’ unwillingness to accept an African American as being in a role of authority, as in the case of his final outing as Blade, Snipes served as executive producer.
Chances are fans will never find out what truly went on behind closed doors during Blade: Trinity‘s filming, but what do you make of the situation? Sound off in the usual place below!
