Malcolm Washington on the Directing Dying of Piano Lessons

When Malcolm Washington did his first movie job – as a camera’s assistant to Jon Favreau’s 2014 Chef – He created a friendship with Roy Choi, a food advisor for the movie. As a lifelong Angeleno, Washington, 33, he was a big fan of Choi’s restaurants, and the two of them tied up to their common experience that they were new to the movie (of course, from Malcolm who visited his father, Denzel Washington, at work at work, as at work as a child).

“We didn’t stay in touch because I was just so,” Washington says. But a decade later, he celebrated the locking of pictures on his directorial debut and decided to honor the Sushi Bar dinner. When he sat down on the only open seat, he found himself next to Choi, “I told him,” I just finished my first movie as a director 20 minutes ago, “and he said,” I always knew you would do something. ‘How much is the serendipitent? ”

That movie is Piano lesson, The adaptation on the big screen of the play August Wilson, played by Danielle Deadwyler, Samuel L. Jackson and the older brother of director, John David Washington. At the NAACP Image Awards, it was nominated for 14 trophies (more than any other project), including an extraordinary film image. Here Washington discusses how it takes it all.

When did you start working on this movie, what did you think it would succeed?

First, he just made the movie. The biggest challenge for me was to convince everyone that I was the person who do it. Then I quickly realized in the process of making how the holy text we were working with was – and how much my associates invested in it. So I wanted to do something that represents us, which reflects our community. I mean the final scene and the way it represents the victims of our ancestors and can feel my grandmother’s hand on my shoulder.

Did you have to throw your brother to work with you?

Absolutely. Our little brother and Big Brother’s relationship was wonderful, but this started a new creative relationship. If you appreciate and respect the job you will do, you need to take it seriously. We wanted to be sure that we were on the same page and reunited to each other as an actor and director. And that eventually unlocked the various parts of our relationship as brothers and sisters.

Danielle Deadwyler sets nominations for Best Actress – Naacp, Gothams, Critics Choice. Can you talk about being beautiful?

Station eleven is what put me on Danielle. It was amazing, and I was obsessed with her performance and I said, “Damn, I want to work so badly with her.” I was in the screenplay process early and I just thought, “Danielle will kill him.”

Who did you contact for the first direct advice?

I have known Zoë Kravitz for some time now, and she has been ahead of me for a few months in the shooting of my first movie (Blink twice), so I talked to her at every stage – when she wrote, and then she was preparing while she shot. She warned me of some traps.

Did you learn something about yourself from the experience of the print cycle and the prizes campaign?

It’s all so new to me. One thing I’ve taken away is that you have to really love what you do and what you did. You can’t fake it – he has to talk to a truth in you. I was really privileged to have got that part right on my first. And you have to admire the people you work with. Our press tour was felt like a family gathering.

Did you feel the pressure to prove yourself on this movie with certain results or numbers?

I mostly felt pressure because of Augusta Wilson’s legacy. It’s like you’re invited to play your uncle Domine: You want to know you can play at the table. This was a younger adaptation and I wanted to be at a table with OGS. As for the tangible success, I am new here, so I don’t even know how to think about it in these conditions. But I showed the early cuts of the movie three people I have been admired for a long time – Ed Zwick, Ryan Coogler and Spike Lee – and getting their notes was honor.

What have you learned or absorbed, watching your father receive awards and recognitions as you grew up?

Both of my parents are very realized and obviously everyone knows about my father’s awards and is proud that he has inheritance in this regard, but none of my parents plays great value in rewards. My father always says this: “Man gives a reward, God gives a reward.” That’s how he lived. You hope that work touches people and whether it results in a statue doesn’t really change anything – you try to lift people with a job that makes sense in some way. In this game, if you persecute it, it chews you and spit out. You have to be in the service of something higher.

This story appeared in the Hollywood reporter on February 12th. Click here to subscribe.