Actor Clifton Powell is speaking out about what he calls Spike Lee’s poor business practices and alleged mistreatment of fellow Black actors.
On a recent episode of The Art of Dialogue, Powell, who has over 250 acting credits, stood by his criticism of Lee, calling them “facts” he won’t take back, and urged critics to investigate “the kind of business” Lee conducted behind the scenes.
“I don’t dislike Spike Lee. I dislike some of his business practices,” Powell said in a clip shared online. “And people can think about me with one guy call in and say, ‘you old C-list a** actor talking about Spike.’ The problem is people talk a lot of stuff and don’t do their research.”
Powell says he’s done his research on the “Do the Right Thing” filmmaker and points to fellow Black actors, including Charles Dutton, who have backed his criticism of Lee.
“I’m never going to accept a Black man doing to us what the man has been doing for the last 70,000 years,” Powell said. “And so go do your research. Listen to what Charles Dutton said. He said Clifton Powell wasn’t wrong.”
Although Powell has never worked with Spike Lee directly, he says friends who have reported that the Academy Award-winning director had a history of mistreating his cast.
“I never threatened him, but I don’t appreciate how he did business with us back in the day,” Powell said. “Not me, but my friends, because I’ve never worked with him.”
Powell acknowledged his respect for Black media moguls like Tyler Perry and even praised Lee’s latest film with Denzel Washington, Highest 2 Lowest. While he recognizes that Black entertainers “got to be careful condemning each other in public,” he says his previous remarks about Lee were made in jest and never intended to go viral.
The Next Friday star is more critical of Lee’s public attacks on Tyler Perry, whom he knows personally and has never had a negative interaction with. Although Powell admits he shouldn’t have publicly criticized Lee, he continues to stand by his claims regarding the director’s alleged poor business practices.
“I don’t respect his business policies,” Powell said.
It was during a 2011 appearance on the Russ Par Morning Show when Powell first made his dislike for Spike Lee public, calling the “Crooklyn” director a “hater” toward his own people.
“I don’t like Spike. I have never said it publicly, but Spike is a hater,” Powell said at
the time. “He was doing all these movies, Sam [Samuel L. Jackson] and all these guys know he’s a hater. He kept all the money; there was lawsuits against him. Spike needs to go sit his punk a** down and stop talking about Tyler Perry.”RELATED CONTENT: ESPN Pulls Spike Lee’s Colin Kaepernick Documentary, Citing ‘Creative Differences’