Director Malcolm Washington, along with cast members Danielle Deadwyler, John David Washington, Ray Fisher, Corey Hawkins, Michael Potts & Virgil Williams discuss 'The Piano Lesson' at the Variety Studio at TIFF.
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00:00Can you tell me about taking on Bernice and the daunting task of having to choose between
00:05two men in the film that, you know, under normal circumstances you probably wouldn't
00:10give time a day in real life.
00:12Right.
00:12Excuse me?
00:14So the question was for me.
00:17Everything I do is community driven.
00:21But it is.
00:21It really, really is.
00:22I just knew I had to over prepare and I was over prepared by having this man.
00:30All of the conversation that we had beforehand.
00:34I mean, they were so totally raw and intuitively driven.
00:37A lot of that stuff is just purely coming from looking at you, sitting with you, being with you.
00:42And then, you know, Bernice is there on the page.
00:45August has done all that work.
00:46And I mean, it's stuff that I've witnessed for so long, like since I was a child.
00:52I've seen just about or read or been a part of readings and seen different productions
00:59since I was a teenager from New York to Atlanta.
01:02And so it's just like in your bones, in your blood.
01:05And it's you're finally at a place where you're able to articulate it through the work and
01:13making a choice between two men.
01:15It's not really a choice between two men.
01:16Right.
01:17It's a choice in how you're seeking to live your life.
01:23Maximizing like a life force in you.
01:27Right.
01:27One is actualizing desire that has been halted.
01:30And the other is a kind of mobility, upward mobility that is being sought like by black
01:36people in that time.
01:37And so, I mean, both of them are desire, you know, wanted, but which is really good for
01:43you in the moment.
01:43What's happening?
01:44It's real stuff going on.
01:47It's real stuff going on.
01:50But that's what's working at hand.
01:53And, you know, being with them is the fuel for all of that.