Wesley Snipes Denies He Tried to Strangle David Goyer & Other Claims From Blade: Trinity Set

Wesley Snipes is disputing claims from Patton Oswalt from years ago that he tried to strangle David Goyer on the set of Blade: Trinity among other claims. Oswalt claimed years ago in an interview with The AV Club that Snipes was “just f**king crazy in a hilarious way…he tried to strangle [director] David Goyer.” He also said that Snipes would only communicate through Post-Its and would sign each note “From Blade.”

Asked about the claims, Snipes flat out shot down the allegation that he tried to strangle Goyer, who he had famous conflicts with on the set of the film. He countered, “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 … Did I go to jail for strangling him? Never happened.”

Snipes reportedly had heavy issues with the production of the film, which was the third in the Marvel vampire hunter-based franchise, including the notion that the focus was put on the “Nightstalker” characters of Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) and Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel). He reportedly refused to film certain scenes, and Goyer has called it “the most personally and professionally difficult and painful thing I’ve ever been through” in a 2016 interview with Hitfix.

Asked about Oswalt’s wilder claims about communicating through Post-Its, Snipes initially giggled and said, Once again, Mr Oswalt is the authority. Hohoho! Why do people believe this guy’s version of this story? Answer me that.” Asked if he thought the claims were fair, he got calmer according to the interview.

“This is part of the challenges that we as African Americans face here in America – these microaggressions,” he said. “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. And all it takes is one person, Mr Oswalt, who I really don’t know. I can barely remember him on the set, but it’s fascinating that his statement alone was enough to make people go: ‘Yeah, you know Snipes has got a problem.’”

He contiued, “I remind you that I was one of the executive producers of the project,” he says. “I had contractual director approval. I was not just the actor for hire. I had au-thor-i-ty to say, to dictate, to decide. This was a hard concept for a lot of people to wrap their heads around.”

Blade is set to be played by Mahershala Ali in the MCU with a film currently in development.