When Denzel Washington directed ‘Fences’ in 2016, he was about to embark on an artistic endeavor that would become an ongoing passion project for many years.
The iconic actor announced in 2015 that he would bring all 10 of August Wilson‘s Century Cycle plays to the screen as he and his family would celebrate the works and legacy of the American playwright.
This continues with the upcoming movie, ‘The Piano Lesson,’ directed by Malcolm Washington and led by John David Washington and Danielle Deadwyler.
Set in 1936 Pittsburgh during the aftermath of the Great Depression, ‘The Piano Lesson’ follows the lives of the Charles family in the Doaker Charles household and an heirloom, the family piano, which documents the family history through carvings made by their enslaved ancestor.
John David Washington and Danielle Deadwyler sit down with That Grape Juice‘s Adam Davidson to discuss ‘The Piano Lesson,’ transitioning from Broadway to screen, and the power of August Wilson’s work.
That Grape Juice: Malcolm Washington said that he wanted his own “creative path” and to “wipe the slate clean” when approaching the movie adaptation… For John David, how was this transition from Broadway to movie with a clean slate?
John David: He said that? That’s a quote, Wipe the slate clean! I never thought of it in that way so I need some time to ruminate on that.
But I can say that there were different responsibilities knowing that we are going to get to see what Mississippi looked like. We are going to see what Crawley looked like and some of the guilt that he had being present at the scene of the crime.
The audience is going to be able to put a face between what [Bernice and Boy Willie] are arguing about. I thought that was a great opportunity to show different sides of Boy Willie. I had a backstory from the play about the last time he saw his father but the script had a different backstory. That changed the interiority of the characters, his intuition, his instincts, his memories, how he deals with loss.
I also thought that some of the stuff [Malcom] kept like the Parchman Farm Song, that even had a life of its own and it was interesting to see how it worked out. I felt more of the pain during the film of the prison system during that scene and it was interesting to see how that happened. Maybe because it was in an enclosed space and wasn’t open to an audience but we were actually in the house and there’s nobody around but us. That had a great influence on how the feeling was and the difference in performance.
That Grape Juice: Danielle, It must be such a gift for an actor to play a character like Bernice who is so layered and complex… What was it like to step in her shoes?
Danielle: August Wilson’s women in the century cycle are so full. They stand singular in presumption of gender but they are very much connected to the totality of the experience of all the people in the world of the play.
Bernice is full of omission, longing and the complexity of humanity. Especially in this film version, she is able to be witnessed as a woman who is fighting and resisting in a certain capacity. The spheres of patriarchal supremacy, being the singular woman in the film, there is Grace and Maretha but she is the singular figure in this household that is contending with all these men folk who are trying to impose a certain understanding of their history and trauma and a challenge to her intuitive self.
That’s just a part of my natural artistic inclinations and something that I explore in my own personal artwork and something critical in the examination of Black womanhood and Southern Black womanhood, those things are near and dear to me. So to be able to explore this with them is just electric.
That Grape Juice: From Denzel Washington and Viola Davis in ‘Fences’ to Chadwick Boseman in ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ to you both in this movie, what makes August Wilson’s work such a powerful place for actors to thrive?
John David: Start with his words, his poetry. It’s almost like a right of passage when you get to utter these words and really internalize what your relationship with the words is based on the life that you lived.
With actors that we all love and revere, [for example,] Sam Jackson who originated my role of Boy Willie in 1987, have their different takes on this work but its all available for us and if you want to be an actor and if you really love what we do then you have to jump into that for these plays and it’s available. By that I mean, the experience of the African American lifestyle in America and what they’re going through is in these words. It’s not singular, everybody has got different ways of living. There is something very connected in the way that he wrote it, in fact, he is the nexus. It’s exciting to be able to explore this and it must be explored if you want to do this.
