'The Piano Lesson' becomes a family affair for Malcolm Washington

Mom knows best. Or at least Malcolm Washington’s did.

When producers – including her husband Denzel – were looking for someone to direct August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson,” she threw Malcolm’s name in the ring.

A graduate of the American Film Institute, he was looking for something to capitalize on his skills.

“Malcolm’s got some ideas,” Denzel remembers his wife, Pauletta Pearson, saying. “You should talk to him and put some things together.” And, that, the two-time Oscar winner says, “was kinda how it started.”

A few years earlier, Denzel was asked to shepherd the 10 plays in Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle, a look at the African-American experience in the 20th century. Already, he had starred in “Fences” and produced “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and was looking to prep another one. “The Piano Lesson” was revived in 2022 on Broadway and starred John David Washington, another son.

When a film adaptation was announced, several from that cast (including Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Fisher and Michael Potts) were asked to join. Danielle Deadwyler and Corey Hawkins were added to the cast.

To foster a family atmosphere, the cast and crew went to dinner before shooting began.

“It was just nonstop stories and laughter,” Malcolm Washington says. “I remember turning to Corey and saying, ‘This is what the movie is. It’s this sharing story from generation to generation. It’s coming together and sharing experience.’”

Wilson’s play, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990, focuses on a piano that has been a part of a family for generations. Carved into its wood are images of slaves who were sold to pay for the piano. When its current owners talk of selling it, stories spill out and ghosts visit the relatives. The piano’s importance, then, becomes key.

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Potts says the transition from Broadway to film was an easy one. “Corey and Danielle walked in like they had always been there,” he says. “It wasn’t any kind of disruption to the energy of it.”

Jackson, a key member of the cast, was like glue. He brought decades of experience, Malcolm Washington says, and held the others accountable and challenged them “in a way every good artist should.”

To get a handle on the actors and the story, Malcolm Washington visited with filmmaker Spike Lee. “One of the first things (he said) was how important choosing your collaborators are,” he says. “Spike’s built that community as a filmmaker both behind the camera, in front of the camera, above the line and below the line.”

As dad learned from director Ridley Scott (his collaborator on “Gladiator II”), “80 percent of it is casting.”

Listening to different opinions, Malcolm Washington found the threads necessary to pull “The Piano Lesson” together.

“We wanted a younger voice,” says producer Todd Black. “And a visionary. When he started talking to Denzel and myself, (Malcolm) had a vision of it that we didn’t have…and it was very clear and very cool.”

To make sure everything meshed, the director put the focus on Wilson. “Every bit of ego involved was directed toward August Wilson’s story,” says Potts. “We were just kinda family hanging out.”

Making “The Piano Lesson” was a way to honor the work “in its purest essence,” Malcolm Washington says. “Having an opportunity to take some of the themes that are so resonant in the story and expand on them and visualize them and explore them in a new language was the most exciting.”

“The Piano Lesson” is available on Netflix.

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