Family and legacy laced through Malcolm Washington's 'The Piano Lesson'

Malcolm Washington talks about bringing the play The Piano Lesson — about a brother and sister battling over what to do with a family heirloom piano — to the big screen with his whole family.

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

When Malcolm Washington was just coming out of a directing program, trying to figure out what should his first feature film be, he landed on a choice that might intimidate any director, let alone a first-time filmmaker - August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "The Piano Lesson." It's a story that grapples with the tug of war between the past and the future, as a brother and sister battle over what to do with an an heirloom piano engraved by an enslaved family member.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE PIANO LESSON")

JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON: (As Boy Willie Charles) You feel that?

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

WASHINGTON: (As Boy Willie) That's your family. That's your blood.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

CHANG: The play takes place in Pittsburgh during the Great Depression. But Washington says it's a story that resonates generations later.

MALCOLM WASHINGTON: Working in this time and this space, it became so clear that we're telling a story of America, right? We're telling this, like, story of Black American reclamation.

CHANG: It was no accident when Malcolm Washington chose "The Piano Lesson" for his directorial debut. He's the youngest child of actors Denzel and Pauletta Washington, and he had been digitizing his own family's photos when he came across this play.

WASHINGTON: It was at a time when I was trying to understand who I was in the context of all that came before me. You know, who I am as relation to my family and my ancestors and all the way up and up and up. And the decisions that they made - how that affects the life that I live today. So me taking that on and confronting that idea and confronting those parts of myself ultimately turned into "The Piano Lesson."

CHANG: I mean, that's so beautiful, the way you put it, because I imagine the process of digitizing your family's photos made you a keeper, in some ways...

WASHINGTON: Exactly.

CHANG: ...Of part of your family's history.

WASHINGTON: Exactly.

CHANG: Did that responsibility help you prepare for doing something like "The Piano Lesson"?

WASHINGTON: Totally. So what you're talking about right now is such a serious thing. It's an important thing because my grandmother, my last living grandparent, passed away of COVID, and my mom became the matriarch of the entire family.

CHANG: Wow.

WASHINGTON: And she became the keeper of stories, the connection to the ancestors, the one that could look you in your eye and say, oh, you know what? That laugh was just like how your grandfather used to laugh, and he used to do this thing that you do now, and all these people live in you. She became the keeper of all of that, and that's so much for one person, and it made me want to take on some of that responsibility, too, you know?

CHANG: Shoulder some of that burden...

WASHINGTON: Shoulder some of it.

CHANG: ...And privilege.

WASHINGTON: And - yeah, exactly. And just the knowledge of it because, you know, my mom is one person, and I have a different set of curiosities. I was looking at this image of my grandmother, who passed away when I was eight - my other grandmother.

CHANG: Your other grandmother. Yeah.

WASHINGTON: Yeah. She's four years old, and she's on a porch with her grandparents. And I'm thinking of the amount of time that this photo spans, to live on my laptop now, in 2024, and all that came into my being. I'm, like, these are the stories that need keeping. You know, this is the image that needs...

CHANG: Yes.

WASHINGTON: ...That my granddaughter should look at, you know, and know that your face is in there, too, that you're connected to all of these things. So I just found so much peace and protection and power and all of that, that I wanted to engage in that.

CHANG: What a perfect project for you, then.

WASHINGTON: Right.

CHANG: You know, one of the challenges in adapting literary work for the screen is deciding when and when not to be faithful to the source material, right? Like, your film, which although is very faithful to the original play - it also opens that play up. Like, you depict scenes that characters only talk about in the play. You have flashbacks on screen. How did you think about when to stick close to and when to deviate from the play?

WASHINGTON: We really wanted to explode it. We wanted to play with form. And we have some imaginings, some dreams, some nightmares, some flashbacks, some memories and some things that live in between all of these things because there's moments where you have - you know, where your - you remember something, and your memory is not faithful, but what you remember is how you felt about it.

CHANG: Yes.

WASHINGTON: And that becomes the most truthful part of the memory.

CHANG: Absolutely.

WASHINGTON: And I wanted to represent that.

CHANG: You know, while "The Piano Lesson" is a family story, this film production was very much a family affair, right? Like, your whole family was involved. Your brother, John David Washington - he's the lead actor in this film. Your dad, of course, Denzel Washington - he's taken on the responsibility of producing all of Wilson's major works for the big screen, and he, of course, starred in "Fences" back in 2016. I was just curious from a personal standpoint, what was the hardest part of having so much of your family involved in shaping this project with you?

WASHINGTON: I think when you care so deeply about something and you commit yourself to it entirely, it's not that hard because you've already committed everything to it. You have nothing else to make it hard. It's, like, I - everything I have is in the pot now.

CHANG: Yeah.

WASHINGTON: You know? But working with my family was such a beautiful experience, not only because I love them and I think that they're all super talented but because they revere this work that we're making, and they understand the value in community and helped me build out a community. All of our crew - like, we became such a family. And I think that that example was set because it was so much family around.

CHANG: Yeah.

WASHINGTON: This is like - the most special part of our lives is the work that we do, what we're trying to say and do and honor our ancestors. Like, there's nothing more important than that in that moment, and you want to bring everybody with you.

CHANG: You know, the key relationship in this story is between two siblings. Berniece, who's played by Danielle Deadwyler - she wants to hold on to the family piano. And then Boy Willie, who's played by your older brother, John David Washington - he wants to sell the piano to buy the land that their family was enslaved on.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE PIANO LESSON")

DANIELLE DEADWYLER: (As Berniece) I knew you was up to something.

WASHINGTON: (As Boy Willie) So this brother say he's selling the land to me, told me he'd give me two weeks. Now, I got one part. I sell them watermelons, get another part. You know, we could sell that piano.

DEADWYLER: (As Berniece) I ain't selling that piano, Boy Willie.

CHANG: And, you know, it's this whole tension between holding on to the past versus letting go of the past to focus on the future. And I'm just curious, what side of that conflict do you personally sympathize with more?

WASHINGTON: I hate to do this.

CHANG: You're smiling, though.

WASHINGTON: I hate to...

CHANG: (Laughter).

WASHINGTON: ...Because both of these things wrestle inside of me, you know? That's why I was so compelled to make this film. I think what's necessary on both sides of this conflict is the idea of confrontation, of confronting your past, confronting your history, confronting these parts of yourself that you're trying to reconcile. They're brother and sister, and they're two children, in a lot of ways, that are hurt by some of the actions of their parents...

CHANG: Yeah.

WASHINGTON: ...That need to heal and forgive them. In so many ways, that confrontation doesn't have to be a fight. It just has to be an engaging and a wrestling with, in order to get through.

CHANG: So you didn't answer my question.

(LAUGHTER)

CHANG: Both sides are important.

WASHINGTON: Both sides are important. Yeah. I think - ultimately, I think that - I think I'm with Berniece on this one.

CHANG: Yeah.

WASHINGTON: I change my mind all the time, but...

CHANG: You have to embrace your past.

WASHINGTON: But - you have to 'cause that...

CHANG: You have to hold onto it.

WASHINGTON: You have to hold onto it. You have to protect it, and that can look like different things that can look different from how Berniece does it. But I think that that's such a big part of you, and you have to make decisions about yourself, about your life and your future, with that understanding. You don't have to be your parents. You don't have to do the same thing your grandparents did.

CHANG: Right.

WASHINGTON: You don't have to make the same choices your great-grandparents did. But it's with that knowledge and understanding of their lives and the contexts and conditions in which they lived that you can make decisions for your future.

CHANG: Malcolm Washington is the director of the film "The Piano Lesson." Thank you so much for coming into NPR...

WASHINGTON: Thank you.

CHANG: ...West, Malcolm. It's been such a joy to talk to you.

WASHINGTON: I know. It went by so fast. I'm like, I feel like...

CHANG: It really did.

WASHINGTON: ...We're just getting started.

CHANG: (Laughter).

WASHINGTON: But thank you for having me, having me back. I'd love to talk to you any time.

CHANG: Oh, I'd love to talk to you again.

(SOUNDBITE OF COLEMAN HAWKINS' "BODY AND SOUL")

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.