During a recent interview in promotion of his new film BlacKkKlansman, director Spike Lee was asked about Boots Riley's recent critique.
Lee, however, has no plans of directly commenting on Riley's three-page "political critique" of the film's content and timing. "I'm a young chap, a young man aged 61, but before I was even a younger chap," Lee told the U.K.-based Times, excerpted by The Hollywood Reporter on Friday. "Now when I get a hint that this stuff is maybe going to dilute the message of my film, I know it is not going to do me any good to comment."
Asked specifically about Riley's assessment of Lee's portrayal of police in the '70s, Lee reaffirmed his no-comment stance. "I'm not going to comment on that," he said, adding that he's been "very critical" of police in his art but he's "never going to say all police are corrupt" or that they all "hate people of color."
Earlier this month, the Sorry to Bother You director shared three pages of thoughts on Lee's film. When several outlets picked up the essay and characterized it as an "attack" on Lee, Riley pointed out that he opens his critique with a compliment on the quality of the filmmaking. "I idolize Spike," he added.
