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Unfortunately, Green Book Had Another Fried Chicken Scene

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Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen. Photo: Universal Pictures

Much has been made of the fried chicken scene in Green Book, where Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) — checks notes — is surprised that his black employer doesn’t eat fried chicken like all the other black people he knows. It turns out Green Book once had a second fried chicken scene that seems more fraught than the first. “There was a long scene when Dr. Shirley goes to a big plantation house in North Carolina, and everybody’s seated for dinner and there is fried chicken, corn on the cob. Everybody is trying to eat that chicken with a knife and a fork. And, finally, Tony picks it up and eats it with his hands, and everybody else does,†Green Book producer Jim Burke told The Hollywood Reporter. “He looks over at Dr. Shirley and says, ‘See, this is the way people do it.’ We wound up cutting that scene because it was a long way around for a laugh.†Luckily not a laugh was lost.

Unfortunately, Green Book Had Another Fried Chicken Scene