John David Washington, son of legend and icon Denzel Washington, star of features such as Tenet, Monsters and Men, and BlacKkKlansman, discussed his role in the film The Piano Lesson. Adapted and directed by his younger brother, Malcolm Washington, who makes his debut as a feature filmmaker with this film, The Piano Lesson dropped on Netflix on Nov. 22 following acclaimed bows at Telluride, Toronto, and London.
The film follows siblings Boy Willie and Berniece, who clash over whether to sell a family heirloom. The film—originally based on the play of the same name by legendary playwright August Wilson—is one of Wilson’s Century Cycle — 10 entries that interrogate Black American life in the 20th century. John David is Boy Willie, a complex role fueled by all the ghosts and ghouls of American history that Wilson offers up in the play.
“This story is one of the rare times I’ve been able to play a character who’s very verbal about what he’s going through,” he says. The challenge, he adds, was artistic but personal as well.
“If I could handle this story it would be one of the hardest characters I’ve ever played. If couldn’t do it, maybe I wasn’t good enough. Perhaps I was at a certain level where I could only do certain characters. So there was a lot of pressure,” he continues.
Also starring are Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Fisher, Danielle Deadwyler, Michael Potts, and Corey Hawkins. Malcolm Washington co-wrote the screenplay with Virgil Williams (Mudbound) and the producers are Denzel Washington and Todd Black. John David digs further into the process of bringing Wilson’s work to the screen with his brother, balancing theatre work with the cinema, where he sees himself in the wider film industry, and his desire to work with filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson and Jordan Peele.
The full John David Washington interview is available on Deadline.
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