American Gods star Orlando Jones has kicked off quite a buzz following his stepping down from the Starz fantasy drama.
Firstly, he claimed that his character, Mr. Nancy, is absent from Season Three due to the Powers-That-Be’s inherent racism.
Now, the 51-year-old actor claims that he almost wasn’t paid to write for the Neil Gaiman-inspired series last season. This is a surprising revelation, especially given the blood, sweat, and tears that Jones had to endure to write American Gods.
As he explains in his interview with Geeks Worldwide, he “started doing notes with the studio along with the showrunner’s permission, of course. I was very involved and they begged me to do it. They just didn’t want to pay me.”
However, Jones was insistent that they “could not go against my guild. It’s a writer guild show and I’m a member. They had to pay me. They said no. I said That’s kinda racist. You paid all the white guys and they are at home… The guild requires that. That’s why it was so stupid for them to be so angry with me about it.”
Moreover, Jones had a tough time writing for American Gods as a whole. He allegedly wasn’t given much time and was forced to write scenes “very quickly”.
In the same interview, Jones made further accusations of racism on the Freemantle’s part. He hinted that while it appeared they were focusing on both Shadow Moon and Mr. Wednesday in American Gods, they were really just centering around the latter character. “I know that Fremantle doesn’t care about the characters of color on the show,” he said, “They’ve said it to me.”
He went on to say that Shadow Moon was meant to be narrating the Season 2 opening, not Mr. Wednesday. However, the decision was allegedly made because it was felt that “brown faces don’t sell in Europe”.
