John David Washington & Malcolm Washington Talk “The Piano Lesson”
Malcolm Washington’s directorial debut, The Piano Lesson, is a cinematic triumph. It honours the richness of the source material, composed by playwright August Wilson, while forging new paths in storytelling. From the outset, Washington was driven by a deep personal connection to the material. As he explained in an interview, “I had 33 years of ideas… I had so much to draw from and to make a project that was so personal to me. There’s so many nuances that are just completely lifted from either feelings I’ve had, thoughts I’ve had, or actual, literal moments that carried all the way through.”
The Piano Lesson is, in many ways, a family affair: it stars Malcolm’s older brother, John David Washington, and is executive produced by Denzel Washington. The film follows a brewing battle over the fate of an heirloom piano, which threatens to tear a family apart. The drama is based on August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play. It also stars Danielle Deadwyler and Samuel L. Jackson.
“I’m unbelievably proud of the performances that they delivered on the screen. I watch it every time, and I’m like, ‘Look at my friends up there, doing it for real.’”
Malcolm Washington on ‘The Piano Lesson’
For John David, it was the freedom from egos that he found most liberating. “I don’t have to protect my art,” he said in the joint interview with Malcolm. “Sometimes, you get in productions where you have to protect yourself from an ego here, an inflated ego there, a senseless idea here. With this, it was free for all to go for it.”
Malcolm took a cue from Spike Lee, and he learned that respect from family was key. “John David always respected me and treated me as a director and empowered me in that way too,” he said. “So, that was something that [I] tried to mirror back to him and give him the respect of being the lead actor of the film and treat him in that way.”
Read on below on what the Washington brothers had to say about working with each other and bringing August Wilson’s play to life.
On Working With Family
Malcolm: I have been a huge fan of John David for a long time, and so I’ve been manifesting a circumstance in which we get to work together. I’m also a student of Spike Lee — his films, and him as a producer and director and mover through the world. And Crooklyn has always been a big soft spot for me and how they made that movie. It’s a movie about family. It’s a movie that they put themselves into, and Spike wrote it with his siblings about their upbringing. When I was working for him, I would see how he would work with his family, and with respect, because they respected each other so much; they respected each other as artists and dealt with each other as artists while making art. That was a cue that I took from John David. John David always respected me and treated me as a director and empowered me in that way too. So, that was something that [I] tried to mirror back to him and give him the respect of being the lead actor of the film and treat him in that way.
John David: I felt that way about everybody in the cast. I didn’t think about anything. And ultimately, I think that’s due to our director as well. When I don’t have to think about it, you know what it is, I don’t have to protect my art. Sometimes, you get in productions where you have to protect yourself from an ego here, an inflated ego there, a senseless idea here. With this, it was free for all to go for it. When you see these artists at their best, and at their most humble states and at their most vulnerable states, you can’t help but to jump in, fall in, if you can. That was an invitation from the great Danielle [Deadwyler].
On John David & Danielle Deadwyler
Malcolm: I’ve got to just add, it was so beautiful watching them work together. So much of the movie is them, is just carried on their shoulders, and the way that they were so generous to the other person, always giving 100. You can get into a thing where you’re making a movie — especially when there’s a lot of emotion or dialog — where you’re shooting one side of it, and the actor opposite them doesn’t put the same into it as they did on their coverage. [John David and Danielle Deadwyler] always put 100% of themselves when they were off camera, for the other person, to give them something to respond to, and I think it shows in the work. I’m unbelievably proud of the performances that they delivered on the screen. I watch it every time, and I’m like, ‘Look at my friends up there, doing it for real.’ So I’m just blessed, blessed, blessed.
On Preparing For the Film
“Ultimately, we’re respecting and appreciating the August Wilson genre. He doesn’t write linearly, he writes spherically.”
John David Washington
Malcolm: I had so much to draw from. Then, to make a project that was so personal to me, it was so — there’s so many nuances that are just completely lifted from either feelings I’ve had, thoughts I’ve had are actual, literal moments that carried all the way through. So, in preparing for it, I was just trying to harness all of that and work from a place of feeling and intuition. I’ve studied for a very long time, and now you take that and you apply it to something. You want to show up every day and be prepared for the people that you’re working with, for the crew, and make sure that we’re all marching in the same direction, and letting everybody bring their best stuff to the table. That just raised the level of what we were all doing, in the end.
On ‘Breathing New Life’ Into a Much-Loved Play
John: Well, yeah, no, what you proposed there is exactly what was so exciting; this fertile ground to plan on, this new frontier. And by that, I mean the perspective of this wonderful filmmaker. Now, we have an opportunity with these words that are generational, these experiences that we all know. We’ve seen the movie, you know, of our time and what we came through antebellum south. And the Jim Crow south era reconstruction. We’ve seen that, A, B, C, D, we know it, but to see it now, in another way, that’s what was so exciting about it. To see how he opens it up, the prospect of what that is going to look like; we get to see Mississippi, we’re not just living in the house, you know? We get to see the dreams. We get to see some of the nightmares. We see his son as ghosts, we get to see a fire blaze, we get a little action speed up upstairs. So, we’re playing with genre in a way, but ultimately we’re respecting and appreciating the August Wilson genre. He doesn’t write linearly, he writes spherically. So, I think those kinds of opportunities as an actor are enriching. It just gets me up in the morning, every day, to get ready to go to work.
On the ‘Most Unbelievable Moment’
Malcolm: I can’t believe we got to make the movie. I can’t believe that we got to do it in the way that we did, which was leading with love and art first. I can’t believe that we have such an incredible partnership — with a company as big as Netflix — that believed in what we were doing and allowed us to bring this story to the screen in this way. I can’t believe that Frank Ocean gave us a song. I can’t believe Erykah Badu is in the movie. I can’t believe that Danielle Deadwyler and John David are beating each other up for two hours and hug in the end. It gives me a chill every time.
The Piano Lesson is now streaming on Netflix.
The post John David Washington & Malcolm Washington Talk “The Piano Lesson” appeared first on Sharp Magazine.