‘The Piano Lesson’: Malcolm Washington, John David Washington, Danielle Deadwyler discussed the film in NYC
“The Piano Lesson” director Malcolm Washington wasn’t “trying to dishonor August [Wilson] in any way, but we were trying to tell the story for modern audiences in a way that I think communicates and articulates clearly visually,” as opposed to how it’s experienced on stage. He discussed the film, about a Black family in 1930s Pittsburgh and the title family heirloom that divides them, at a special screening and Q&A in New York City on September 12. He was joined by producer Todd Black, executive producer Katia Washington, and actors John David Washington and Danielle Deadwyler.
SEETelluride: ‘The Piano Lesson’ wins raves for Danielle Deadwyler
Malcolm continued, “This work is so layered, right? There’s so many elements at play here. There’s a lot of tones at play. There’s a lot of subtext in-between the lines, and we wanted to honor that and bring it out visually.” His brother John David experienced the play on the stage and on the screen, appearing as Boy Willie on Broadway and reprising that role in the film. And the experiences were quite different. On stage he was “literally making sure everybody can hear you, making sure the diction and the clarity of the words are there.”
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The film, however, filtered the story through Malcolm’s directorial point of view. “And the strength of that is the intimate moments, the quiet moments … how we listen to his words, how we react to our actors, and that will be on full display because of this medium.” Malcolm also opened up the play to include detail beyond August Wilson’s text, “so a lot of the backstory that we internalize on stage is on full display cinematically.”
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Deadwyler appreciated Malcolm’s “malleable” approach to directing the actors. “Malcolm didn’t box us in.” And she developed a “natural” rapport with John David. “There’s just a natural playfulness. And yet we’re both deeply, deeply serious and deeply, deeply committed. And Malcolm gets to be a part of a triad in the making of what we are, or what we became.” As for her character of Berniece, “I do think that Wilson is pushing the margins on the stereotypes of mother, Black womanhood, Black motherhood.” The actress imagined “what Berniece would have wanted to be if not for all of the isms that were marginalizing her. And yet she still made a certain migrational pathway to grow in hopes for [her daughter] Maretha.”
Black also feels that redemption is a theme that recurs for male characters throughout August Wilson’s works, from “Fences” to “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” to “The Piano Lesson”: “They all just want to be loved. Even if they did wrongdoings, they just want to be loved by somebody and that’s certainly the case with these three plays for sure with these three lead guys. They need the female figure to forgive them and love them anyway. And I think if you know anything about August Wilson, he brought a lot of his personal stuff to his writing, which is why I think it resonates so loudly with everybody.”
“The Piano Lesson” had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on August 31. It opens in select theaters on November 8, followed by a streaming premiere on Netflix on November 22.
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