Malcolm Washington
Appearances
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
I did visit. I visited for an afternoon.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
It was so dope. It was so dope. I'm a big Chris Nolan fan, you know, and our generation of film goers, he's like, you know, one of those guys. We came, you know, from following Memento, like all of them. I watch all of his films. Um, and know them, know them well. And he's has, he creates worlds, you know? So when you visit his set, it feels like you're in his world.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
Thank you for having us. Hello. Yeah, thank you. That was quite an introduction. I was like, whoa.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
Like everything just looks like, like if, if they weren't shooting there and you opened your eyes there and you found yourself there, you'd be like, this feels like a Christopher Nolan movie. It just is just, you know, dripping in his, um, personality. It feels like, and his aesthetic. So it was really exciting to go. and see my brother at work.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
And when I got there, there was a woman called Arielle that I worked with. She went to AFI with me. She used to production design my shorts, actually. So it was really crazy being in a Nolan set with Arielle, who's assistant art directing, and my brothers on set. And they're shooting in this shipping container, so you can't really see anything. They're just like...
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
people in a box, and you kind of get this feeling that something's going to happen, and a monitor emerges, and I get to see some of the stuff that they're shooting. And I, like... Hoyta frames up the camera, and I see my brother doing something probably really mundane. It was like you were, like, opening, like, a door. It was, like, very, like, nothing was happening.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
And he frames up, and I hear... I hear Chris Nolan say John David's name and gives him a note and I just burst into tears because it was like, whoa, this is like, it just hit me like a ton of bricks. Like this is, this is a kind of moment that we've been thinking, like when we, when we live together, we dreamed together too. You know, we talked about, we talked about wanting to
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
do stuff like that, you know, wanting to be in a movie like that. So when he, seeing that image and hearing those sounds and knowing that world and everything just kind of converged on itself in that moment. And I have, you know, somebody from my film school right next to me and she put her hand on me and was like, it's okay. And I was just like, this is like, this is too much.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
It was just overwhelming. It was so overwhelming.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
break down when we all kind of stand like after the scene we were all standing together I didn't know I didn't break down but you got embarrassed because so they shoot and they walk out they break for lunch and they all walk off the set and I like jump in front of Chris I'm like yo thank you
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
for your contribution because I'm like you know I love movies like I really love this stuff you know so the people that make movies that make me feel something or think about like they mean a lot to me like I feel like I owe them something you know and these films feel like they become yours as an audience member it's like that's my like that was my like I watched Phantom Thread and The Master I'm like you know these are my movies right
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
Right. So so when I see people like that, I tell them, I'm like, yo, thank you. Like, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for everything you've done. And I did that. But it was like not that moment. Everybody's at work. They're trying to get to lunch. And I look at John David just drops his head like dog. Like, no, man, I just not right now. Mr. Nolan's trying to get his ribs. Yeah.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
They got ribs today, sir. What are you doing? He's like holding the monitor like, I appreciate it, man, but can you step out the way?
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
It was so funny. It was so funny. But he was gracious. Thank God.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
Is the woman that made that suit was a costume designer on that film. Her name is Francine, Miss Francine. Miss Francine. Miss Francine was our costume designer on the piano lesson.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
Yeah, so it was like a full circle moment.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
You do some questionable things. You be barking.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
What's the barking about? He just starts barking like crazy right before we start shooting. Like, right. Sound up. Camera roll.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Let the people know. Oh, boy. Just let them not know, okay?
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
I think that they just, like, they were so protective of themselves first and us as well. You know, like, they kept... They always just highlighted, like, keeping the noise outside. And I think that heat and desire that you're speaking of can be that noise, you know? And I think that we all just live very kind of meaningful private lives. And... I don't have that heat and desire in my DMs.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
So I don't have to deal with it in the same way John David does as an actor and his face is out there all the time. But I think that they just... Aren't you on GQ?
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
It was a full beard. Yeah, the braids were braiding. But for real, I think it's just like the kind of focus and protection of your piece and yourself and not kind of getting swept up in all the other stuff.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
We love our parents. We love both of them. And you know what saddens me sometimes about that is like, man, just like the role that mothers play, that black women play in our culture, that black mothers play, it's like such a crucial one. And they're often such an overlooked position sometimes. Like people don't give them their flowers. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to give our mom our flowers.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
We love her. She's done so much for us.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
And can you imagine? You know what I mean? Can you imagine? It's like... They've gotten to, like, an impossible situation, you know? It's like, my dad growing up first at Harlem and then Mount Vernon and just kind of, like, where he's ascended to in his... You'd be claiming Harlem like that? Yeah. What you mean? Harlem, Harlem, Harlem. Yeah, right.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
And then God forbid he meets somebody from Mount Vernon and then it's like, what's Harlem, you know? But yeah, you know, they both overcome and made such incredible lives for themselves. And I think we carry pride of coming from such strong, you know, people that live a purposeful life.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
Yes. I used to call the house. I used to call the house. And, of course, you have that thing when you're 16, 17, maybe staying out a little late or something or the report card came in and it wasn't perfect. And you call the house and you're like, oh, I hope my sister picks up. I hope my brother picks up. And John David would pick up, and he would sound just like my dad. Hello? Oh, my goodness.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
I would stand straight up. Where the hell was I? Dang. I guess I can't deny it. It's always been like that.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
You know what? I think that there's a really wonderful thing happening now where so far there's three films. There's been three different filmmakers and three different voices that have come to them. And each of the films kind of reflect the voice of the filmmaker so far. Like my dad with Fences, Mr. Wolf with, you know, he's an incredible theater director.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
And I think that you can see that growing. That talent at work in Ma Rainey, my voice is different from theirs. I think you see that in Piano Lesson.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
So I hope that for the rest of them, they continue to get varied voices from different backgrounds and different kind of points of view and let this whole thing be a much larger kind of project where you look back and it's this tapestry of Black artists working this time, connecting to this seminal texts.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
Thank you. Thank you for having us. Yeah, great conversation. I appreciate it.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
Yeah, I think it's really, really, really important for people to learn their history, both ancestral and just culturally. Know where you come from and acknowledge it. Because we're living in a time where... People are trying to rewrite history or erase people from history and their contributions.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
So it's kind of incumbent upon all of us to reclaim our stories, you know, and proclaim them and declare them who we are as a people, who we are as a culture and identity. All these things are super urgent to reclaim.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
Yeah, it was intimidating, but it was also very exciting. The first step was putting this in a context, a historical context, understanding the moment that the play was written in, the moment that it's speaking to, that it's set in. It was about learning...
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
as much as I could about August Wilson, his considerations as a writer, who he was as a man, where he's from, what he stood on, his belief system. Understand all these things about him and his intentions so that you can kind of pass it through the prism of yourself and bring your voice to it, but always trying to serve this kind of bigger thing.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
But the truth is, really, it was a combination. Yeah, so they had different stories on it. They got different stories, yeah.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
Actually, no. No, I'm named after, he's a cousin of mine, but our dynamic and age, he's like an uncle. My cousin Malcolm from Eden, North Carolina.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
Don't leave John David Crowe out. Right. That's right.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
I love LA so much. I think LA is just an incredible city. There's so many amazing cultures that come together there. It's a place that's both a physical place and metaphysical in that when people think about it, there's an idea of what LA is, and then there's kind of a lived experience of what LA is. I like that it operates on a couple different fronts. I think that it...
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
functions kind of like how Pittsburgh functions in, in our story, the piano lesson where it's a, it's a place, especially for black people. It's a place where, um, in the great migration, so many black people came in search of opportunity to build a new life, to build themselves up.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
So it's a, it's a place built off of the, not only the hopes, but the labor of dreams, you know, like somebody had to build that place. Um, and I, I think that it lives in, it's, it's lives in that, you know,
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
Absolutely. You know, I grew up with such a strong consciousness. And you got to remember, like, I grew up. in the era of my dad, having played Malcolm X, you know, so I identify with Malcolm X as a figure. I identify with that part of our story.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
And growing up in LA in the 90s, post LA uprising, you know, where black people have a voice, they're fighting for something, they're believing in something, they're saying something. I connected to that so much. So that—it's like how Boy Willie says, you know, I was born in a time of fire. I feel that, too.
Fresh Air
The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
You know, that resonates with me from both the creative artistic movements that were happening at the time, the political movements that were happening at the time, of people declaring themselves and who they are at the time. And so all of those things live in me. And I'm happy that my parents had such a pride in our culture, have such a respect for it, and instilled that in us.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Baldwin Hills is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, for those who don't know.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Because, I mean, were you saying, oh, I'm Denzel Washington's son?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
I want to ask you guys about something else. And I want to see if I can formulate it right. But like, how do you deal with the heat of fandom and desire? Because I mean, your dad, for instance, is not only a great actor, you're already laughing, but your dad's already already know, of course, he's a great actor, but he's also like every mom and every auntie's crush. And
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Fine in every generation, right. And now you guys are continuing the torch. I actually just picked up an L.A. magazine, and John David, you're on the cover looking like a sex symbol, you know?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Gomez had to relearn Spanish to take on the role after losing her fluency as a kid. And film critic Justin Chang reviews Gladiator 2 and the musical Wicked. That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend. This is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Tanya Mosley. And today, my guests are Malcolm and John David Washington. The brothers collaborated on the late August Wilson's The Piano Lesson for the screen on Netflix.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Let the people know. Oh, boy. Just let them not know, okay?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
I'm just curious. What's the question? Period. No. Period, yeah. What did, like, I'm wondering, what did your dad teach you or what lessons did you learn from watching him when it comes to navigating that energy and that heat that like throngs of fans throw towards you? Because, I mean, I can't even imagine what your DMs might be like, you know?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
They both teach you that, but there's no denying that there's also that other thing. And I just want to know how you navigate it, both of you.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
I think that they just, like, they were so protective of themselves first and us as well. You know, they always just highlight, like, keeping the noise outside. And I think that heat and desire that you're speaking of can be that noise, you know. And I think that we all just live very kind of meaningful private lives. Yeah. I don't have that heat and desire in my DMs.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
So I don't have to deal with it in the same way John David does as an actor and his face is out there all the time. But I think that they just... Aren't you on GQ? Wasn't there a GQ thing?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
It was a full beard. Yeah, the braids were braiding. But for real, I think it's just like the kind of focus and protection of your piece and yourself and not kind of getting swept up in all the other stuff.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Both of you make such a strong point, and it's beautiful to see. But every chance you get, you remind people that you're the sons of both Denzel and Pauletta. They'd be trying to erase my mom. That's crazy. It's more of a reaction, I guess.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
We love our parents. You know, we love both of them. And you know what saddens me sometimes about that is like, man, just like the role that mothers play, that black women play in our culture, that black mothers play. It's like such a crucial one. And they're often such an overlooked position sometimes. Like people don't give them their flowers. Yeah. yeah, we're gonna give our mom our flowers.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Yeah. What's her reaction to you guys making that statement and stating it so clear? Because as a mother, I just always smile. Like, I want my children to be speaking my name out in the world like that.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Yeah, and can you imagine? You know what I mean? Can you imagine? It's like... they've gotten to like an impossible situation. You know, it's like my dad growing up first at Harlem and then Mount Vernon and just kind of like where he's ascended to in his... He be claiming Harlem like that? Yeah.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Harlem, Harlem, Harlem. Yeah, right. And then God forbid he meets somebody from Mount Vernon and then it's like, what's Harlem, you know? But yeah, you know, they both overcome and made such incredible lives for themselves. And I think we carry pride of coming from such strong, you know, people that live a purposeful life.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Yeah. John David, the older you get, the more and more you sound like your dad. Do you guys get confused at all in listening, like on the phone or no?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Yes. I used to call the house. I used to call the house. And, of course, you have that thing, you know, when you're 16, 17, maybe staying out a little late or something or the report card came in and it wasn't perfect. And you call the house and you're like, oh, I hope my sister picks up. I hope my brother picks up. And John David would pick up, and he would sound just like my dad. Hello?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Oh, my goodness. I would stand straight up. Where the hell was I? Dang. I guess I can't deny it. It's always been like that.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Yeah. Do you think you'll adapt any more of August Wilson's plays?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
You know what? I think that there's a really wonderful thing happening now where so far there's three films. There's been three different filmmakers and three different voices that have come to them. And each of the films kind of reflect the voice of the filmmaker so far. Like My Dad with Fences, Mr. Wolf with, you know, he's an incredible theater director.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
And I think that you can see that growing. That talent at work in Ma Rainey, my voice is different from theirs. I think you see that in Piano Lesson.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
It's the fourth play in Wilson's American Century Cycle, a series of 10 plays inspired that captures the Black American experience through every decade of the 20th century. Malcolm serves as the director, and John David stars as the brash, impulsive, and fast-talking boy Willie, who wants to sell the family piano to buy land in Mississippi that his family was enslaved on.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
So I hope that for the rest of them, they continue to get varied voices from different backgrounds and different kind of points of view and let this whole thing be a much larger kind of project where you look back and it's this tapestry of Black artists working this time, connecting to this seminal texts.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Malcolm Washington and John David Washington, this was such a pleasure to talk with both of you. And thank you so much.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yeah, great conversation. I appreciate it.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
John David and Malcolm Washington's new film is The Piano Lesson. Their father, Denzel Washington, is starring in his own film, the much-anticipated blockbuster Gladiator II, which is expected to battle at the box office with another big studio film, Wicked. Cynthia Erivo and Ariane de Grande star in Wicked, and our film critic Justin Chang has seen both movies. Here's his take.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
The family battle ensues between boy Willie and his sister Bernice, played by Danielle Dedweiler, who wants the family to hold on to the piano, a family heirloom engraved with their ancestors' faces. The production of this film was a family affair. The brothers' sister Katia and their father, Oscar-winning Denzel Washington, are producers.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Justin Chang is a film critic for The New Yorker. He reviewed Wicked and Gladiator 2. Coming up, Selena Gomez, who stars in the new film Amelia Perez. I'm Tanya Mosley, and this is Fresh Air Weekend. This is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Tanya Mosley. And I recently had the chance to check out the movie Amelia Perez, the new Spanish-language musical that stars my guest today, Selena Gomez.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
The film is centered on a lawyer named Rita, played by Zoe Saldana, who is kidnapped and tasked with helping a ruthless Mexican cartel leader secretly undergo gender-affirming surgery to begin a new life as Amelia Perez. Selena Gomez plays Jessie Del Monte, the wife of the cartel leader, who knows nothing about her husband's transition and is led to believe that Emilia Perez is a distant cousin.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
And Denzel, who starred and co-produced in Wilson's Fences, has committed to adapting Wilson's plays into 10 films. Their mother, Pauletta Washington, even appears in the movie, starring as Mama Ola. The Piano Lesson is Malcolm Washington's directorial debut for a feature film, and John David portrayed Boy Willie in the Broadway revival of The Piano Lesson.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
The film is almost entirely in Spanish, and Gomez, who grew up speaking it but lost fluency, took lessons to prepare for the role. Here she is singing a stirring performance of Bienvenida, which means welcome.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
That's Selena Gomez singing in the new Netflix movie musical Amelia Perez. As an ensemble, Gomez, along with Zoe Saldana and Carla Sofia Gascon, who portrays both Amelia Perez and the cartel leader before she transitions, won the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize for Best Actress. Selena Gomez is an actor, singer, and the founder of the successful cosmetic line Rare Beauty.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
She began acting in 2002 at 10 years old on the television series Barney and Friends. She went on to star in several Disney shows before her breakout role in the series The Wizards of Waverly Place. As a musician, she's had 16 consecutive top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, the longest active run of any artist, and she's the most followed woman on Instagram.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
We talked about some of her struggles with such a high level of fame and her diagnosis of lupus and bipolar disorder. Gomez was nominated for an Emmy Award for her role in the mystery comedy series Only Murders in the Building alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short. Selena Gomez, welcome to Fresh Air.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
I was wondering, you spent, was it nearly half a year, training, preparing for this role, learning Spanish. You actually grew up speaking Spanish until something happened. It took a turn when you weren't speaking it anymore.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
He's also starred in several films, including Spike Lee's Black Klansman and Christopher Nolan's Time Travel Mindbender Tenet. John David and Malcolm Washington, welcome to Fresh Air.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Right, because even though you weren't speaking it, did you feel like you could understand it when you heard other folks speak it? Completely.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Mm-hmm. Let's talk a little bit about the themes in the movie. She's looking for freedom because she's married to this very brutal drug kingpin. And so all the things that go along with that life. She has two children by him. It's not explicitly said, but it seems as if maybe she got married when she was very young to him. Yeah.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
There's a transformation with your husband from male to female, but there's also a transformation of this character. She's like a dormant volcano of a wife. And we watch her as she goes through. And I want to play a clip. And this clip I'm about to play. It's several years after her husband has had the transition. She thinks he's dead.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
She goes back to Mexico and she connects with a man who really is the love of her life. And in this scene, the two of you, this man, you and this man, you all are in a club and you're singing the song Mi Camino. Let's listen.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Thank you for having us. Hello. Yeah, thank you. That was quite an introduction. I was like, whoa.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
That's my guest, Selena Gomez, singing the song Mi Camino in the musical film Amelia Perez. Okay, Selena, this is a liberation song.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Well, I want to get right into our discussion about the film by playing a clip. And the story takes place in 1936. Bernice, played by Danielle Deadweiler, lives in Pittsburgh with the piano and her brother, boy Willie, played by you, John David. is a sharecropper in their hometown of Mississippi, and he's driven up to Pittsburgh in hopes of persuading Bernice to sell.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
The words. I'm going to read a little bit of the words in English. If I fall into the ravine, it's my ravine. If I double the pain, it's my pain. If I send myself to the seventh heaven, it's my heaven. If I lose my way, it's still mine. I want to love myself. It's a liberation song. And to me, without being too sappy about it, I feel like it sounds familiar to your life path. Do you see that?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
But she kind of was. I mean, she was 16 when she had you, so she was a young mom.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Do you remember the first time you were on stage, your first performance?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
And their uncle, played by Samuel L. Jackson, explains why Bernice won't do it. He speaks first. Let's listen.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Right, because you're taking in all the lessons that you all are teaching us, too.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Well, for those who don't watch it, Only Murders in the Building, the Hulu series, is centered on you, Martin Short, and Steve Martin. You guys are a trio of residents in this really beautiful Upper West Side apartment building called the Arconia. And you set out to investigate a string of murders in the building and start a true crime podcast to chronicle those. the investigation.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Martin Short has said, like in all of the interviews, just how much fun you guys have on the set. He alludes it to being kind of exceptional in that way. What makes it fun? Well, first off, um,
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
I want to play a clip from season one. So you all live in the same apartment. And you don't really know each other that well. But you're starting to come into this idea that something really fishy is happening here. Here, your character, Mabel, is joining the two others in Oliver's apartment, and Oliver is played by Martin Short, and Charles is played by Steve Martin. Let's listen.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
That's my guest, Selena Gomez, with Martin Short and Steve Martin in the very popular Hulu series, Only Murders in the Building. Selena, there's such a tenderness to your relationships with those guys. That seems like it's only grown over the seasons. I was watching, I think I saw you and Martin Short on a TV show recently, and you were showing him how to put on makeup from your rare beauty line.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
And it felt natural and connected, like you all are your friends.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
That was my guest today, John David Washington, with Samuel L. Jackson in the Netflix film The Piano Lesson, directed by my other guest, Malcolm Washington. And, you know, this is such a Black American story that endures that yearning to pass down items of value up against this very real society.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Selena Gomez, this has been such a pleasure to talk with you.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Selena Gomez stars in the new movie, Amelia Perez. Fresh Air Weekend is produced by Teresa Madden. Fresh Air's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director is Audrey Bentham. Our engineer is Adam Staniszewski.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Anne-Marie Baldonado, Sam Brigger, Lauren Krenzel, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi, and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producers are Molly C.V. Nesper and Sabrina Seward. With Terry Gross, I'm Tanya Mosley.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
an often desperate need to sell for practical reasons, or in Boy Willie's case, to gamble towards this American dream of owning land. And I want to start by asking you, Malcolm, what was it about this story that you felt was not only enduring, but an urgent one that needed to be retold now?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Yeah, I think it's really, really, really important for people to learn their history, both ancestral and just culturally. Know where you come from and acknowledge it. Because we're living in a time where... People are trying to rewrite history or erase people from history and their contributions.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
So it's kind of incumbent upon all of us to reclaim our stories, you know, and proclaim them and declare them who we are as a people, who we are as a culture and identity. All these things are super urgent to reclaim.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
You also wanted to bring a modern touch to this. And I mean, August Wilson is one of the greatest playwrights of our time. So, I mean, this material is just right. But I can imagine that's also intimidating, possibly. What was your first step in bringing your director's touch to what is well-established material?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Yeah, it was intimidating, but it was also very exciting. The first step was putting this in a context, a historical context, understanding the moment that the play was written in, the moment that it's speaking to, that it's set in. It was about learning...
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
as much as I could about August Wilson, his considerations as a writer, who he was as a man, where he's from, what he stood on, his belief system. Understand all these things about him and his intentions so that you can kind of pass it through the prism of yourself and bring your voice to it, but always trying to serve this kind of bigger thing.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
John David, in the scene that we played, you were in character with Samuel L. Jackson, who actually originally played Boy Willie in 1987. And in this film, he plays the uncle to Bernice and Boy Willie. His performance, it's quiet, it's contemplative. He exudes kind of like this wise knowing as he watches you. And for me, it was a little bit emotional.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
I'm like going through this moment where I'm looking at all of our actors as we move through time and they age. It was just emotional to watch, knowing his history with the character. What was it like for you to watch him watch you, both in the Broadway version and in this movie?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
He was supportive of you guys talking to you about like the industry and the craft. But like, did he talk to you about this character or did he kind of leave that to you to interpret it?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
I'm really curious, John David, why do you think actors in particular are drawn to Wilson's work kind of as a way to deepen their craft? I'm thinking about all of the actors that are really well known today who have gone through and done these plays, Courtney B. Vance, James Earl Jones, Viola Davis, your father, Denzel, so many others. What is the gravitational pull?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
If you're just joining us, my guests today are John David and Malcolm Washington. We're talking about their new film, The Piano Lesson. We'll continue our conversation after a short break. I'm Tanya Mosley, and this is Fresh Air Weekend. This is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Tanya Mosley. Let's get back to my interview with Malcolm and John David Washington.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
The brothers have taken on the late playwright August Wilson's play, The Piano Lesson, for the screen. The production of this film was a family affair. The brothers' sister Katia and their father, Denzel Washington, are the film's producers. Denzel has committed to adapting Wilson's plays into 10 films. The plays capture the Black American experience through every decade of the 20th century.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
From WHYY in Philadelphia, this is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Tanya Mosley. Today, John, David, and Malcolm Washington join me to discuss bringing the August Wilson Play the Piano lesson to the screen for Netflix. It's about a brother and sister battling over what to do with a family heirloom piano and what to do with a family heirloom piano.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Your names, Malcolm and John David, where do those names come from? I can kind of guess with Malcolm, but I want to be sure.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
But the truth is, really, it was a combination. They had different stories on it. They had different stories, yeah.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Malcolm X, is that who you were named after or not?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Actually, no. No, I'm named after, he's a cousin of mine, but our dynamic and age, he's like an uncle. My cousin Malcolm from Eden, North Carolina.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
I noticed... And John David Crowe, by the way.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
That's right. Both cousins. Right. Right. You know, I noticed how in interviews, both of you guys, you kind of say it offhandedly, but you regularly rep Los Angeles as your hometown. And... I want to know what does it mean for the both of you to identify not only as Angelenos, but, you know, you're Black Angelenos. And then you also come from like a very privileged section of that then as well.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
I mean, how did growing up here influence your art and your taste?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
I love LA so much. I think LA is just an incredible city. There's so many amazing cultures that come together there. It's a place that's both a physical place and metaphysical in that when people think about it, there's an idea of what LA is, and then there's kind of a lived experience of what LA is. I like that it operates on a couple different fronts. I think that it...
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
functions kind of like how Pittsburgh functions in, in our story, the piano lesson, where it's a, it's a place, especially for black people. It's a place where, um, in the great migration, so many black people came in search of opportunity to build a new life, to build themselves up.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
And the production of it was a family affair that included their sister Katia and their father, Denzel Washington, who both served as producers. We also hear from Selena Gomez. She stars in the new Spanish-language musical Amelia Perez. Gomez plays the wife of a brutal drug cartel leader who decides to undergo gender affirmation surgery.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
So it's a, it's a place built off of the, not only the hopes, but the labor of dreams, you know, like somebody had to build that place. Um, and I, I think that it lives in, it's, it's lives in that, you know,
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
You know, as a kid growing up in the 90s, your father Denzel, Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, I'll even throw in like Eddie Murphy and just so many people. They played such a big role in the construction of Black Pride for so many, myself included. And I'm just... I really want to know how that felt internally to grow up among it and in it.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Like was black history and black pride also something that your parents instilled in you in the way that like just to the public they were instilling in all of us?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
Absolutely. You know, I grew up with such a strong consciousness. And you got to remember, like I grew up. in the era of my dad, having played Malcolm X. So I identify with Malcolm X as a figure. I identify with that part of our story.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
And growing up in LA in the 90s, post LA uprising, where black people have a voice, they're fighting for something, they're believing in something, they're saying something. I connected to that so much. So that, it's like how Boy Willie says, you know, I was born in a time of fire. It's like, I feel that too.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
You know, that resonates with me from both the creative artistic movements that were happening at the time, the political movements that were happening at the time, of people declaring themselves and who they are at the time. And so all of those things live in me. And I'm happy that my parents had such a pride in our culture, have such a respect for it and instilled that in us.