close
close

Apre-salomemanzo

Breaking: Beyond Headlines!

    • The film “The Piano Lesson” is a Denzel Washington family project
    aecifo

    The film “The Piano Lesson” is a Denzel Washington family project

    Umito Posted on

    play

    Netflix’s first day of filming “The piano lesson” was moving for Denzel Washington as he watched his two sons work – Malcolm directing and Jean-David in front of the camera – while sitting next to his fellow producer, his daughter Katia.

    Washington, 69, felt like a “proud” dad before having to switch back to filmmaker mode to get things done: “Great, we’re all here. OK, what’s next? ” says the Oscar winner, sporting his signature smile in an interview alongside his longtime producing partner, Todd Black.

    “It’s been exciting and fun to see all these brothers and sisters working together and creating art together,” adds Black.

    The fact that there is so much Washington involved befits “Piano Lesson” (airing Friday on Netflix), a drama based on the play by August Wilson it is above all a question of family heritage. In 1936, boy Willie Charles (John David Washington) travels from Mississippi to Pittsburgh to see his sister Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) and sell a truckload of watermelons with the intention of buying the land where their family was once enslaved . To help with this endeavor, Boy Willie also wants to sell Berniece’s piano, a legendary heirloom with carvings of their ancestors’ faces, but his feisty sister is determined not to let it go.

    Join our Watch Party! Register to get USA TODAY’s movie and TV recommendations delivered straight to your inbox.

    August Wilson’s ‘Piano Lesson’ Addresses Malcolm Washington ‘Directly’

    Berniece lost three important people in her life – her parents and her husband – and now wants to “create a better foundation” for her daughter while working through “her trauma and her history and a finer understanding of her mother’s experience with the piano. , which is a kind of altar,” Deadwyler says. Meanwhile, Boy Willie looks up to his sister and “recognizes her strength that has been passed down” through their family, John David Washington adds.

    “Piano Lesson” marks Wilson’s third adaptation under Denzel Washington’s watch since he struck a deal with Wilson’s estate to produce all 10 of the influential playwright’s works as films. Washington directed and starred in 2016’s “Fences” and produced 2020’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and the new film. “It’s an excellent film written by a great playwright,” he said.

    Seeing and studying Wilson’s plays made 40-year-old John David want to become a professional actor. Not so much his younger brother who writes and directs: “It’s best to know your limits,” Malcolm jokes, making his brother laugh. But Malcolm, 33, a graduate of the American Film Institute conservatory, felt that “The Piano Lesson” “spoke directly to me,” he said of his first film. “There were ideas there that I had to engage seriously and meaningfully, and address parts of myself and confront parts of my ancestry and my lineage for the first time.”

    Denzel Washington’s Creative Sons Admire Each Other

    While the first day of “Piano Lesson” remains etched in his father’s mind, John David Washington remembers another particularly moving moment. During the first casting read, “there was a moment where Malcolm walks in, he’s in all-white overalls, he’s got a candle lit (and) it’s like, ‘Yo, look what he put together! ‘ “I was very excited, not necessarily about my brother, but about this director that I’m about to work with, a director that I’m a fan of,” John David says proudly.

    For Malcolm Washington, his moment of brotherly love in Hollywood came during a visit to John David on the set of Christopher Nolan’s 2020 action thriller, “Tenet.”

    When Nolan approached to experience a minor scene with his brother, “I just burst into tears. I was so upset,” Malcolm says. “The team looked at me and I’m crying. I’m like, ‘He just opened the door.’ It was beautiful.” Then his older brother came out “and he’s so embarrassed.”

    John David adds: “I was like, ‘They can always fire me, bro.’ »

    John David Washington takes his parents’ acting career to heart

    When asked if he passed anything down to his sons, Denzel Washington replied with a laugh: “I hope it’s common sense.” » However, Malcolm recently received a very important gift from his father: a Bible passed down from Denzel’s mother, who had received it from his uncle. “There are so many generations in Washington that touch on this,” Malcolm says.

    When talking about the family business, John David thinks of both his father and his mother Pauletta, who starred on Broadway and in films like “Philadelphia” and “Antwone Fisher”: “The artist I tries to be is the legacy and what they’ve stood for all my life He also admires his sister Katia, co-executive producer of his 2021 film “Malcolm & Marie”, and admits that he is. “crazy” with her. “She believes in me so much and she’s everything. I’ve never said this really publicly (but) I want to impress her in some way.

    It was important to Malcolm to involve as many of his family members as possible in the project, which is why his mother and twin sister Olivia play older and younger versions of a supporting character. And even though he’s not on screen, Denzel Washington also has a role to play. “It’s a little Easter egg. I won’t say where,” Malcolm teases. “It’s depicted in a way that I find really poetic and beautiful.

    “In a few years, we can always come back to “The Piano Lesson” and say, “Our story is there, our faces are there, our voices are there and our hearts are there. » »

    Umito
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like