Wesley Snipes Denies Patton Oswalt's Claim That He Tried to Strangle Blade: Trinity Director

Wesley Snipes is looking back on his 2004 film Blade: Trinity and allegations of bad behavior on set.

In 2012, the actor's former costar Patton Oswalt claimed Snipes "tried to strangle" Blade: Trinity director David S. Goyer on the set of the 2004 film.

Snipes, 58, denied those allegations in an interview with The Guardian, saying, "Let me tell you one thing. If I had tried to strangle David Goyer, you probably wouldn't be talking to me now."

"A Black guy with muscles strangling the director of a movie is going to jail, I guarantee you," the actor continued in the interview published Monday. He added the incident "never happened."

Goyer did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

In 2012, Oswalt told the AV Club, "Wesley was just f—ing crazy in a hilarious way," adding the third Blade film was "a very troubled production." The comedian added Snipes "would only communicate with the director through Post-it notes" throughout filming. "And he would sign each Post-it note 'From Blade.' "

Snipes told The Guardian in response to Oswalt's comments, "This is part of the challenges that we as African Americans face here in America – these microaggressions. The presumption that one white guy can make a statement and that statement stands as true!"

"Why would people believe his version is true? Because they are predisposed to believing the Black guy is always the problem. And all it takes is one person, Mr. Oswalt, who I really don’t know," Snipes continued. "I can barely remember him on the set, but it’s fascinating that his statement alone was enough to make people go: 'Yeah, you know Snipes has got a problem.'"

The actor added, "I remind you that I was one of the executive producers of the project. I had contractual director approval. I was not just the actor for hire. I had authority to say, to dictate, to decide. This was a hard concept for a lot of people to wrap their heads around."

Snipes also spoke about being sentenced to three years in prison in 2008 for tax evasion, telling the outlet he "came out a clearer person."

"Clearer on my values, clearer on my purpose, clearer about my relationship with my ancestors and the great god and the great goddess above, and clearer on what I was going to do once I had my freedom back," he said. "The biggest thing I got from it was learning the value of time and how we often squander it … I understand that very clearly now, having been away from my family and loved ones two and a half years."

Since serving the time, Snipes has made a few movie and TV appearances, including in 2014's The Expendables 3 and Spike Lee's 2015 film Chi-Raq. He starred opposite Eddie Murphy in last year's Dolemite Is My Name, and he's back with Murphy in the sequel Coming 2 America.

Coming 2 America is set to premiere on Amazon Prime Video on Dec. 18.

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