Malcolm Washington
speaker
151 appearances
3 recordings
2 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Nov 2024
Malcolm Washington’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
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?
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.
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.
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.
But the truth is, really, it was a combination. They had different stories on it. They had different stories, yeah.
Malcolm X, is that who you were named after or not?
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.
All right. Big ups to cousin Malcolm.
Yeah.
I noticed... And John David Crowe, by the way.
Don't leave John David Crowe out.
Right.
That's right.
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.
I mean, how did growing up here influence your art and your taste?
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...
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.
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,
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.
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?
Showing 21–40 of 151 · page 2 of 8
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