Natasha Lyonne Offers a 'Wild' Defense of Wesley Snipes' Time on 'Blade: Trinity'

Tales of actors behaving badly tend to take on lives of their own. They are often told from secondhand perspectives. It isn’t unusual for the actor involved to never comment on what is being alleged. Occasionally, there will be some evidence that will force an actor’s hand, like when audio emerged of Christian Bale yelling at director of photography Shane Hurlbut on the set of Terminator: Salvation. Still, a lot of times the stories exist as told through others and begin to take on a mythical quality. Few have accomplished that like Blade: Trinity.

The third (and, so far, last) Blade film had a troubled production, to say the least. Blade: Trinity has been labeled a difficult production by the people who worked on it. Notably, comedian Patton Oswalt has told jokes about Wesley Snipes not wanting to film the movie and also trying to fight director David Goyer. Goyer has admitted that no one liked working on the film but wouldn’t blame Wesley Snipes explicitly. However, he noted that he was still friends with Patton and not Wesley. Ryan Reynolds took stories about Snipes not liking him while filming the third Blade and turned it into a joke for Deadpool Ampersand Wolverine.

Now, Natasha Lyonne is entering the conversation. Lyonne sat down for the Happy Sad Confused podcast and Blade: Trinity came up. Lyonne’s are, I think, the most enlightening details yet. “I’d never seen anyone do this: he had a tattoo double, a profile double, and body double, and he would do his close-ups and he’s so fun to act with but on the reverse…he wouldn’t be there,” Lyonne explained. “It was just so wild because on Zig Zag, he was fully present.” Zig Zag is a 2002 film Lyonne appeared in with Snipes, and that experience was quite different.

Not only did Snipes and Lyonne work together on Zig Zag, it was written and directed by Goyer! “Well, David Goyer, the writer/director, had also done this other film Zig Zag,” she recalled. “Zig Zag also had Wesley Snipes, John Leguizamo, and Oliver Platt as my pimp. Wesley was so f***ing extraordinary in this movie. It was a real indie film. Then on Blade: Trinity, it was so funny.” In a sea of negative stories about Snipes, it is nice to hear that there have been some pleasant experiences working with him.

There is no (known) ill will between Snipes and Reynolds anymore (at least not enough that money couldn’t solve). Lyonne still speaks fondly of the Major League star. The accusations about his behavior still stand, but I was happy and surprised to hear this other perspective on the whole thing. Having Snipes be fully checked in for a passionate indy but difficult on a multi-million dollar franchise that was trying to replace him makes sense. It doesn’t excuse his behavior, but it does help contextualize it a bit.