'Boardwalk Empire' post-mortem: Jeffrey Wright says Narcisse suffers 'spiritual assassination'
Harlem intellectual and “business” man Dr. Valentin Narcisse (Jeffrey
Wright) started off the season as the new king in town, chipping away
at Chalky White’s control of the predominantly black North Side
community in Atlantic City. By season’s end, he may have survived a
botched assassination attempt, but according to Wright, he suffers a
“real spiritual assassination” when J. Edgar Hoover (Eric Ladin) forces
him to become his informant for the Bureau of Investigation.
“He becomes what he despises at the beginning and that is a servant pretending to be a king, so it all comes full circle,” Wright explains.
Narcisse’s fate is now at the mercy of Hoover — almost inevitable given the historical period the series showcases. Wright says, “Looking from the outside in, what’s fascinating about that dynamic is that it reflects some level of accuracy relative to Marcus Garvey and the UNIA [Universal Negro Improvement Association].”
He continues, stating, “Hoover’s first Civil Rights obsession was with Marcus Garvey and there were clearly people who played the role of Judas, if you will, to Garvey. And so now, we’ll see where it goes, but Narcisse who has been really villainous before — even though maybe not within his mind — is clearly fallen to the bottom of the barrel now.”
Despite selling heroin, beating Daughter to a bloody pulp, and being an overall creepy albeit dapper guy, Narcisse has never thought of himself as the “bad guy” — until now. “I think for him, what will be interesting is that he will be the only one who knows,” he says. “I imagine that will be a fairly tortuous kernel of knowledge for him because he doesn’t feel that what he’s doing prior to that is undermining of the Negro Race.”
No matter how Narcisse acts, he sees himself as the “representative of the pinnacle of the Race.” Wright states, “Whatever he does to serve himself, serve those like him, serves the interest of the Race. If he has to separate the wheat from the chaff by weaning out the weaker among the Race then it only strengthens the cause, so he doesn’t feel that what he’s been up to is outside the realm of progress. Now, he’s clearly betraying everything that he holds dear so it’ll be an interesting continuation of the journey.”
“He becomes what he despises at the beginning and that is a servant pretending to be a king, so it all comes full circle,” Wright explains.
Narcisse’s fate is now at the mercy of Hoover — almost inevitable given the historical period the series showcases. Wright says, “Looking from the outside in, what’s fascinating about that dynamic is that it reflects some level of accuracy relative to Marcus Garvey and the UNIA [Universal Negro Improvement Association].”
He continues, stating, “Hoover’s first Civil Rights obsession was with Marcus Garvey and there were clearly people who played the role of Judas, if you will, to Garvey. And so now, we’ll see where it goes, but Narcisse who has been really villainous before — even though maybe not within his mind — is clearly fallen to the bottom of the barrel now.”
Despite selling heroin, beating Daughter to a bloody pulp, and being an overall creepy albeit dapper guy, Narcisse has never thought of himself as the “bad guy” — until now. “I think for him, what will be interesting is that he will be the only one who knows,” he says. “I imagine that will be a fairly tortuous kernel of knowledge for him because he doesn’t feel that what he’s doing prior to that is undermining of the Negro Race.”
No matter how Narcisse acts, he sees himself as the “representative of the pinnacle of the Race.” Wright states, “Whatever he does to serve himself, serve those like him, serves the interest of the Race. If he has to separate the wheat from the chaff by weaning out the weaker among the Race then it only strengthens the cause, so he doesn’t feel that what he’s been up to is outside the realm of progress. Now, he’s clearly betraying everything that he holds dear so it’ll be an interesting continuation of the journey.”
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