When Malcolm Washington was working his first movie job — as a camera production assistant on Jon Favreau’s 2014 Chef — he struck up a friendship with Roy Choi, the film’s food consultant. As a lifelong Angeleno, Washington, 33, was a huge fan of Choi’s restaurants, and the two bonded over their shared experience of being new to a movie set (apart, of course, from Malcolm visiting his dad, Denzel Washington, at work as a kid).
“We didn’t stay in touch, because I was just a P.A.,” says Washington. But a decade later, he was celebrating picture lock on his directorial debut and decided to treat himself to dinner at a sushi bar. When he sat down at 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’d do something.’ How serendipitous is that?”
That film is The Piano Lesson, the big-screen adaptation of the August Wilson play that stars Danielle Deadwyler, Samuel L. Jackson and the director’s older brother, John David Washington. At the NAACP Image Awards, it’s nominated for 14 trophies (more than any other project), including outstanding motion picture. Here, Washington discusses how he’s taking it all in.
When you started work on this film, what did you think would make it a success?
First, it was just getting the movie made. The biggest challenge for me was convincing everybody that I was the person to do this. Then in the process of making it, I quickly realized how sacred the text we were working with was — and how much of themselves all my collaborators were putting into it. So I wanted to make something that represented us, that reflects our community. I think of the final scene, and the way it represents our ancestors’ sacrifices, and I can feel my grandmother’s hand on my shoulder.
Did you have to pitch your brother on working with you?
Absolutely. Our relationship of Little Brother and Big Brother was wonderful, but this was us starting a new creative relationship. If you value and respect the work you’re going to do, you have to treat it seriously. We wanted to make sure we were on the same page and to reintroduce ourselves to each other as actor and director. And that ultimately unlocked different parts of our relationship as siblings.
Danielle Deadwyler is racking up best actress nominations — NAACP, Gothams, Critics Choice. Can you talk about casting her?
Station Eleven is what put me on to Danielle. It was incredible, and I was obsessed with her performance and I was like, “Damn, I want to work with her so badly.” I was early on in the screenwriting process and just thought, “Danielle would kill it.”
Who did you turn to for advice about first-time directing?
I’ve known Zoë Kravitz for a while, and she was a few months ahead of me in making her first film [Blink Twice], so I talked to her at every stage — when she was writing, then prepping and as she was shooting. She warned me about some pitfalls.
Have you learned anything about yourself from the experience of the press cycle and awards campaigning?
This has all been so new for me. One thing I’ve taken away from it is that you have to really love what you do and what you’ve made. You can’t fake it — it has to speak to some truth inside of you. I was really privileged to have gotten that part right on my first one. And you have to admire the people you work with. Our press tour felt like a family reunion.
From left: Ray Fisher, Malcolm Washington and John David Washington on the set of The Piano Lesson.
Katia Washington/Netflix
Did you feel pressure to prove yourself on this film with certain results or numbers?
I mostly felt pressure about carrying on August Wilson’s legacy. It’s like being invited to your uncle’s dominoes game: You want to know that you can play at the table. This was a younger adaptation, and I wanted us to be at the table with the OGs. In terms of tangible success, I’m new here, so I don’t even know how to think of it in those terms. But I did show early cuts of the film to three people whose work I’ve long admired — Ed Zwick, Ryan Coogler and Spike Lee — and getting their notes was an honor.
What did you learn, or absorb, from watching your dad receive awards and accolades when you were growing up?
Both of my parents are very accomplished, and obviously everybody knows about my dad’s awards and he’s proud to have a legacy in that regard, but neither of my parents place much value in the awards. My dad always says this thing: “Man gives the award, God gives the reward.” That’s how he’s lived. You hope that the work touches people, and whether that results in a statue doesn’t really change anything — you’re trying to uplift people with work that’s meaningful in some way. In this game, if you chase that stuff, it chews you up and spits you out. You’ve got to be in service of something higher.
This story appeared in the Feb. 12 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.