‘The Piano Lesson’ Director Malcolm Washington on Adapting August Wilson’s Haunting Play For a New Generation: ‘The Vision We Were Presenting Is Pretty Bold’
The first time Malcolm Washington attended the Toronto International Film Festival, he was a spectator, along for the ride as his older brother, actor John David Washington, debuted a film.
“I’m a movie lover — like, I’m a student of the game and a fan first, so I was watching a bunch of movies. I remember sitting there like, ‘I hope I get to experience this on the other side of it,’ Malcolm Washington tells Variety. That memory sprang to mind when he learned that “The Piano Lesson,” his film adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play and his feature directorial debut, had been selected for TIFF. “It’s surreal.’”
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When the Netflix film makes its international premiere on Tuesday night at the Princess of Wales Theatre, Malcolm won’t take the “seasoned vet approach.” He plans to sit through the screening. “You make movies for audiences — to connect with people, to have that shared experience,” he says. “I want to enjoy that too. To hear the groans, or the laughs, or the shrieks of horror, or the tension in the room.”
Washington first encountered Wilson’s haunting 1987 play — set in 1936 Pittsburgh during the aftermath of the Great Depression, about a family at odds over an heirloom piano engraved by an enslaved ancestor — because of John David. He was preparing to star in the Broadway revival and writes out his lines as part of his acting process.
“I was picking up these pieces of paper with these beautiful monologues and I was like, ‘What is this?’” Malcolm says. “If you read August Wilson, you know in each of his monologues, there’s so many layers of meaning. If you’re tapped into that, it’ll just stop you.”
That was in 2020, which had already been a particularly introspective year for the young filmmaker. The AFI conservatory graduate was on the verge of turning 30 and in the process of archiving his family history, so the story’s themes about legacy profoundly resonated. In some ways, he says, it felt like “The Piano Lesson” chose him to adapt.
He spent the next two years digging into the text and researching Wilson, who died in 2005 at the age of 60. In making a movie, Malcolm explains, “You want to deliver on two levels: you want to honor the work itself and try to make something that fits the spirit of August’s intentions, and you also want to honor the medium that we’re working in now.”
Making “The Piano Lesson” was a family affair. Malcolm and John David’s parents are, of course, two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington and Pauletta Washington. In 2015, Wilson’s estate entrusted the famed playwright’s works — a 10-play canon chronicling the Black experience across the 20th century, known as the American Century Cycle — to Denzel and his producing partner Todd Black to adapt into films. (“The Piano Lesson” is the third production, following 2016’s “Fences” and 2020’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”) All four Washington kids were involved — sister Katia executive produced, while Malcolm’s twin sister Olivia is featured in a cameo, as is Pauletta.
Malcolm dedicated the film to her — which he revealed when screening the finished product for his family and the cast. Just before the end credits rolled, the words “For Mama” appear on screen.
“She was crying. She was just proud,” Malcolm says of Pauletta’s emotional reaction. “Thinking of it from her point of view, it’s a big thing. She’s a matriarch of our family. She, in many ways, represents our connection to our ancestors. And to see us honor that, I think she felt loved and seen.”
Then, Denzel chimed in: “He goes, “Why doesn’t it say, ‘For Dad’?” Malcolm adds, laughing with a tenor that sounds a whole lot like his father’s. In truth, the Washington patriarch was nothing but supportive of his son’s vision. “He very much instilled a work ethic: to not take anything for granted, and to grind and work hard all the way through, to hold this text up to the highest level.”
Read on as Malcolm details his process of adapting a great American classic for film — which also stars Samuel L. Jackson, Danielle Deadwyler, Michael Potts, Ray Fisher and Corey Hawkins — and who he turned to for advice.
How did you get from that moment when you realized “These monologues were amazing” to deciding you wanted to direct this and pitching your take on this story?
It was a very organic process, and it was something just driven by the work. I didn’t have a deal. I was just impassioned to start thinking through the story, and I had the time and space to do it. I started working on it as a writer with Virgil Williams (an Academy Award nominee for “Mudbound”), who is a good friend of mine, and we’re like, “Let’s work this out. Let’s get it into a document.” Because the vision that we were presenting was pretty bold. We were taking a work that was very sacred and revered, and we’re trying to break it a little bit, so I thought that the best way to show people what that would be to deliver a script that has that kind of dynamism that I’m trying to put on the screen.
In 2022, I went to Samuel L. Jackson in New York. [Editors note: Jackson originated the role of Boy Willie in the 1987 production before taking on the role of his uncle, Doaker Charles in the revival.] I brought him the script and all this research; I made this book with images and talked to him about my take on the story. We ended up, honestly, just talking about family stories. He showed me pictures of his great grandparents and where his people are from — from Tennessee and Georgia. We were just going down that rabbit hole together and it just felt like, “This is the movie.” We’re telling those stories. We’re honoring those people.
I talked to my brother, too, who was very encouraging. We have such a shared reverence for August Wilson, and we wanted younger audiences — audiences that looked like us, in our age range — to experience it and feel like they had access to it. To feel like it was something made for them and not just for their parents. We were convinced that we could do it, that we could try to crack that. Then, when I spoke to Mr. Jackson and he was locked in with it, we were like, “Now we can take off.”
What was it like directing your brother? Had you been doing that since you were kids?
No. My family is from the South — from a small town called Newton in Catawba County, North Carolina. We used to go there every summer, and my grandparents would make us do talent shows. You know, “Everybody got to do something at the cookout, at the fish fry. All the kids have to do something at six o’clock,” so that that was the closest that we ever got is like working out what our little things were going to be, but I’d never directed him per se.
It was such a blessing to get to do that. At first, you’re kind of playing this game — you want to give the other person exactly what they need all the time. But then, at a point, you have to say, “OK, we’re not brothers. I’m the director, you’re the star actor,” and collaborate from that standpoint. It was wonderful.
Did you talk to any of the other Wilsonian directors: from your father (“Fences”) to George C. Wolfe (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) or LaTanya Richardson Jackson (the 2022 Broadway revival of “The Piano Lesson”)?
Of course. I spoke to Miss LaTanya Richardson Jackson — an icon, a legend. I spoke to Kenny Leon, who’s a huge Wilsonian as well. What’s beautiful about that community is that it feels like a fraternity, especially among that class of director. They’re very established, and they were there from the beginning. I was very much the student to coming to the teachers and they gave me their blessing and their support.
It very much felt like how my brother approached the relationship with Samuel L. Jackson. Where it’s like, “I’m finding my way through this story,” and you have the elders cheering you on from the sidelines.
Did they tell you anything that was particularly helpful?
They told me that they can’t make the kind of movie that I wanted to make, and that I should revel in that. That I should take a swing and do the thing that nobody else could do — which is speak from yourself, speak from your heart.
What do you remember about day one and calling “Action” the first time. Do you say “Action”, or do you say something else?
Nah, I let the first AD call “Action.” I just call “Cut.”
But day one is so nerve wracking. Before the first set up, you have all these things running in your head. You’re like, “I’ve convinced all these people to come on this journey with me, and now we’ve got to do it.” Samuel L. Jackson just starts ad-libbing one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, and we all started cracking up. Sam broke the ice. From there, it was just like, “We’re off.” All that tension in your shoulders is gone because you’re going to going to war with somebody like him, Danielle, John David, Ray, Michael Potts, Corey and Skylar. I would make anything with them.
What have you made of the reaction to the film so far?
I’m getting off the internet right now, but overhearing people talk about it and the people that I wanted to reach, the young demographic getting excited about it, that’s been awesome.
Where did you overhear somebody talking about it?
I was at the coffee shop, and it was like the moment you see on VH1 “Behind the Music,” where they’re like, “They’re playing my song on the radio.” I’ve been listening to this trailer since since March and I could hear it playing across the room. I’m like, “No way. This is crazy.” Everything that I’ve done so far has been so personal and intimate and hasn’t had a big stage to be played on. Doing this is surreal. I don’t know how else to describe it.
I was emailing with an office P.A. saw the trailer who hit me up like, “I’m proud of you.” I said, “I hope you see yourself onscreen. I hope you see your family up there.” Even though it says “For Mama” at the end, it’s for all of us. I want people to go back and think about your tree and all the decisions and the actions that people before you made to make your life possible.
Your father is set to produce the whole century cycle. That’s 10 films. We’re at No. 3. Do you already have your next August Wilson project picked out?
The August Wilson stories are so important that I wouldn’t insert myself in any of that. If there was something that made sense to Miss Constanza Romero Wilson — she’s the boss over there, and she’s been such a great partner and an incredible collaborator. If she wants to do something, I’ll always pick up the phone. But I just want to do whatever is best for the rest of the canon. It’s such an important project, and it’s so cool to see how they can all develop and what can happen after this one.
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