'O.G.' Trailer: Jeffrey Wright Is A Changed Man

Jeffrey Wright stars in O.G., a new film from HBO debuting next month. Wright plays a man in the final weeks of a 24-year prison sentence. The nature of Wright's release becomes challenged when he decides to take a new inmate under his wing. Director Madeleine Sackler filmed O.G. in a real prison, with some of the men incarcerated there appearing in the film. Watch the O.G. trailer below.

Jeffrey Wright is one of those actors who is good in everything. He tends to end up in supporting parts more often than not, but in O.G., he gets to take the lead. Wright plays Louis Menkins, "once the head of a prominent prison gang, in the final weeks of his 24-year sentence. His impending release is upended when he takes new arrival Beecher (Theothus Carter), who is being courted by gang leadership, under his wing. Coming to grips with the indelibility of his crime and the challenge of reentering society, Louis finds his freedom hanging in the balance as he struggles to save Beecher."

This looks intense, and Wright will no doubt turn in another memorable performance. He won the award for Best Actor in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film for this role when O.G. premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. And the fact that the movie was filmed in an actual prison, using real inmates in roles in the film, certainly adds a level of stark realism the proceedings.

"In some ways regardless of the outcome of the film just the process of working on it was meaningful," Wright said in one interview. "The men that we worked with were incarcerated, and most of the actors or most of the roles of incarcerated men in the film were played by men on the inside."

In another interview, Wright added: "Some of these guys are really interesting actors. They're gonna bring it. You see some charismatic guys who were the star of their hood or their block. They were forceful and had presence, because they had to. They have skills of persuasion."

"The biggest challenge was figuring out how to shoot a film in a maximum-security prison, casting men who are incarcerated there," director Sackler said. "It was challenging logistically, but also how to do it creatively, since most of the cast had never acted or been around cameras before. But at the same time, that challenge was also what made the experience of making "O.G."...so powerful, and what brought so many people together who wouldn't otherwise even be in the same room. Having the opportunity to get to know hundreds of people I wouldn't otherwise have met, with experiences so different from my own, was a dream for me. As a woman who chose to make a movie with an almost entirely male, incarcerated cast, making these films broadened my perspectives about the human experience, and the connectivity between all of us. I feel very lucky to have had that experience."

O.G. premieres on HBO February 23 at 10:00 PM.