‘Blade’: Wesley Snipes Was Apparently a Nightmare to Work With Behind-the-Scenes
Most movie analysts give credit to the Blade movie franchise for taking comic book movies in a more mature direction. The star of those movies (Wesley Snipes) has had his share of controversies, though. While he broke barriers in bringing one of the first Black superheroes to the big screen, his on-set behavior was notorious.
This came in the second sequel in the Blade trilogy: Blade: Trinity. Snipes addressed the rumors about his odd behavior on set by just refuting most of the accusations.
He did this a couple of years ago while giving out hope to fans the Blade character could be revived by Marvel. Since then, it seems Snipes might be out of the picture.
Did Wesley Snipes grow bored with the ‘Blade’ role?
When the first Blade released in 1998, it set everything in motion for the X-Men franchise to come about at 20th Century Fox. And, of course, that set everything up for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to exist.
One can say Blade was the real emancipator in making superhero movies what they are today, especially the darker takes. At the time, Snipes was also a big star in action movies.
Blade made him a bigger star, yet it seemed continuing the franchise was a bit troublesome for him. According to Screen Rant, he appeared listless in the role of Blade in Blade II in 2002. Maybe it was because it took four years to get a sequel made and a bit of a letdown plot besides, albeit directed by Guillermo del Toro.
By the time Blade: Trinity began filming in 2004, Snipes was exhibiting some odd behavior on the set. It had nothing to do with his personal problems with tax evasion, as reported by Forbes, if only two years away.
What did Wesley Snipes supposedly do on the set of ‘Blade: Trinity’?
According to all reports, Snipes was more than a little distant with his fellow castmates on this film. He never said so, but it makes one wonder whether he was unhappy being stuck in a superhero franchise.
Fellow actors who acted with him in the movie say he refused to communicate with anyone. He also sent out Post-It notes from his trailer when talking with the director (David Goyer).
No, Goyer and Snipes did not see eye to eye on the film (or anything else), leading one to assume the actor wanted to rid himself of the role as soon as possible, according to Den of Geek. In more recent years, Snipes denies his behavior, other than one little thing.
He also gives a good explanation for using Post-It notes. Whether all true or just revisionist history is something else.
Comedian Patton Oswalt’s take on ‘Blade: Trinity’ problems
Ironically, it took comedian Patton Oswalt to reveal some of Snipe’s bizarre behavior on-set. Oswalt acknowledges Blade: Trinity turned out bad. However, he notes Snipes was smoking marijuana most of the time in his trailer, per the AV Club, seemingly explaining his odd personality.
Said Oswalt about the production (where he played Hedges): “He wouldn’t come out of his trailer, and he would smoke weed all day. Which is fine with me, because I had all these DVDs that I wanted to catch up on.”
Oswalt said other incidents occurred where Snipes would have angry outbursts while filming. All of it appeared like a nightmare, which makes it surprising when Snipes recently noted he would not mind returning to the role. Since he said those words, the MCU picked another actor for an upcoming reboot.
Wesley Snipes at least acknowledges he passed on Post-It notes
In 2018, Snipes was interviewed by Vice about his Blade: Trinity behavior where he denied most of it. Said Snipes about the Post-It note fiasco: “That may have happened. I wouldn’t say it was frequent. Because our whole crew was banished to another side of the island of production. The only way we could sometimes get messages since we didn’t have the radio, was to get it there by courier or pigeon sometimes”.
If true Snipes was smoking marijuana, he just may not remember what happened on the set. At least he notes he should be the only actor to play Blade. The MCU may not think so since the Hollywood Reporter reports they hired Mahershala Ali to play the role in a new Blade movie still on the drawing board.
