JEFFREY WRIGHT'S NEW WAVE

After nearly 40 years of compiling as impressive and delightful a filmography as exists in Hollywood, Jeffrey Wright delivered a career-best performance in the layered, satirical 'American Fiction'. Naturally, it's garnering the best reviews of his career. He'd rather be surfing.

-  SAM SCHUBE

YOU CAN TELL a surfer by the unreasonable things they'll do to get in the water. A few years back, when the actor Jeffrey Wright was playing one of the leading roles in HBO's Westworld, he got into the habit of bolting from set during production breaks and driving an hour to the beach-and then driving an hour back to work. "Even if I could get just 45 minutes in the water," he tells me, "I would get down here every day that I could."

Westworld ran for four seasons, and eventually Wright began renting a place way out on the far western edge of Malibu, a whitewashed surf shack so close to the ocean that he can basically paddle out from his back porch when the waves allow it.

Wright's character was often paired with one played by Luke Hemsworth, and so they spent a lot of time sitting around on set, shooting the shit. Hemsworth, it turned out, was a born-and-bred surfer, so the two started hitting the beach together. Wright was still a little new to the sport, having gotten himself fully obsessed after some lessons with his daughter on vacation in Hawaii. Watching Wright figure things out, Hemsworth recalls, was "kind of like watching a baby giraffe walk. It's cute!" Over the years, Hemsworth has been impressed by the strides Wright, now 58, has made. "I think he's actually progressed faster than anyone I've seen," he says. Hemsworth can't resist another joke: "Especially for an older gentleman."

Finding a foothold in something difficult; wowing those around him: It's the same playbook Wright employed in his day job. Today, he occupies a tier all his own in Hollywood-a character actor who ranges across blockbusters and prestige TV, and, as will become clear this awards season, is also worthy of the most interesting, complex leading roles that we put onscreen.