“I’ve been a fan of Malcolm’s work since I can remember, having seen his short films and music videos,” says John David. “I wanted him to leave. Like, when? It was like “Exhibit C”. "Malcolm comes in with Jay Electronica’s verse,"(Nas) called me on the phone and said, “What are you waiting for?” »” – the first of many rap allusions they would make throughout the conversation.

According to Malcolm’s film, facing the legacy is inevitable. It can also be a spiritual experience, which is how he felt drawn to working on a film his father produced. But to hear Malcolm tell it, the call to realize this project came well beyond the home. After honing his craft with various shorts, Malcolm told me he hadn’t “fished” for stories, but when he read The piano lesson, Wilson’s text has taken up permanent residence. “I was immediately interested in the ideas in it, and they were really important. Not big from a production standpoint – the ideas in it were so big and existential that I felt like I had to face them, engage with them, for myself, just for my own mind .

John David chimes in with a sports analogy, a common attitude for the former college running back. “I didn’t approach it like I was working with my brother,” he explains. “I compare it to a player going through a brick wall for his coach. He says, “Jump,” I ask, “How high?” I was so excited about his approach and perspective on this story.

This is extraordinary praise from John David, who has established himself as a formidable performer in films like Spike Lee’s. BlackKkKlansman and that of Christopher Nolan Principle. On his breakthrough role in the HBO series Ballers– he didn’t mention his Hollywood pedigree during his audition – for The Creator, his last big film, a heady sci-fi action flick from Gareth Edwards, he mostly eschews family collaborations. It’s an approach he also struggled with at Morehouse.

Even then, John David wanted to defuse notions of nepotism and carve out his own identity outside of his family. “It was the boom, it was the battery, it was the motor,” John David remembers. “So I’m going to endure these six concussions, broken collarbones, and torn Achilles tendon in the name of independence. And I had helmet syndrome as a bonus: they don’t even know what I look like. I can just throw the ball, and they’d be like, “Who was that kid?” »