{"id":135339,"date":"2024-11-28T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/28\/in-the-piano-lesson-john-david-washington-faces-his-fears\/"},"modified":"2024-11-28T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T14:00:00","slug":"in-the-piano-lesson-john-david-washington-faces-his-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/28\/in-the-piano-lesson-john-david-washington-faces-his-fears\/","title":{"rendered":"In \u2018The Piano Lesson,\u2019 John David Washington Faces His Fears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"has-dropcap\"><em>The Piano Lesson<\/em> stars <strong>Denzel Washington<\/strong>\u2019s son <strong>John David<\/strong> and is directed by his other son, <strong>Malcolm.<\/strong> But the film is no mere adventure in nepotism. John David, playing the same role in this adaptation as he did in a recent Broadway revival of August Wilson\u2019s play, is a voluble storm in the film, joining his father as another sharp interpreter of Wilson\u2019s kinetic poetry.<\/p>\n<p><em>Vanity Fair<\/em>\u2019s <em>Little Gold Men<\/em> podcast recently caught up with John David on his whirlwind press tour for the film, sitting down with the actor for a special live event at New York City\u2019s Perelman Performing Arts Center\u2014a recently opened multipurpose event space located right next door to <em>VF<\/em>\u2019s One World Trade Center offices in Manhattan\u2019s financial district. Washington and <em>LGM<\/em> were there as part of PAC\u2019s Icons of Culture Festival, an inaugural event celebrating influential artists of all disciplines.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed\">\n<div class=\"AssetEmbedAssetContainer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-container\"><span class=\"SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB responsive-asset AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__responsive-asset\"><picture class=\"ResponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__responsive-asset responsive-image\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptionText-bHjzlu iUEiRd jSwmTa iXWezO caption__text\">John David Washington<\/span><span class=\"BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptionCredit-ejegDm iUEiRd cvffOM fNaHcW caption__credit\">Photo by Peter Cooper.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paywall\">John David is indeed a disciplined artist, still in the process of honing his craft as part of a remarkable professional second act. He began his working life as a pro footballer, playing the game in Europe and in the UFL, the former minor league. Though his acting career already has some very bright highlights, he says that doing <em>The Piano Lesson<\/em> on the Broadway stage felt like a real make-or-break moment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cThat\u2019s what the play served for me,\u201d he tells <em>LGM.<\/em> \u201cI can go toe-to-toe with my fears, because this is the scariest it\u2019s ever going to get\u2014being onstage, spitting August Wilson\u2019s words to a bunch of people that came to pay their good money to see if you\u2019re any good. And I felt like my career would be over, and I\u2019m not being hyperbolic, or I\u2019m not being dramatic. I was like, If this doesn\u2019t work, I\u2019m going to have to look for another line of work.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed\">\n<div class=\"AssetEmbedAssetContainer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-container\"><span class=\"SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB responsive-asset AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__responsive-asset\"><picture class=\"ResponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__responsive-asset responsive-image\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Image may contain John David Washington Electrical Device Microphone Adult Person Accessories Glasses and Couch\" class=\"ResponsiveImageContainer-eybHBd fptoWY responsive-image__image\" src=\"https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/672e7ee382ac43960d53ba23\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/vf1123-PAC-NYC-04.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/672e7ee382ac43960d53ba23\/master\/w_120,c_limit\/vf1123-PAC-NYC-04.jpg 120w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/672e7ee382ac43960d53ba23\/master\/w_240,c_limit\/vf1123-PAC-NYC-04.jpg 240w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/672e7ee382ac43960d53ba23\/master\/w_320,c_limit\/vf1123-PAC-NYC-04.jpg 320w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/672e7ee382ac43960d53ba23\/master\/w_640,c_limit\/vf1123-PAC-NYC-04.jpg 640w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/672e7ee382ac43960d53ba23\/master\/w_960,c_limit\/vf1123-PAC-NYC-04.jpg 960w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/672e7ee382ac43960d53ba23\/master\/w_1280,c_limit\/vf1123-PAC-NYC-04.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/672e7ee382ac43960d53ba23\/master\/w_1600,c_limit\/vf1123-PAC-NYC-04.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"100vw\"\/><\/noscript><\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptionText-bHjzlu iUEiRd jSwmTa iXWezO caption__text\">David Canfield, Richard Lawson, and John David Washington<\/span><span class=\"BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptionCredit-ejegDm iUEiRd cvffOM fNaHcW caption__credit\">Photo by Peter Cooper.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paywall\">It all panned out in the end, leading to much of the cast signing on to do the film version of the production\u2014this time directed by John David\u2019s kid brother. But that family connection didn\u2019t mean the actor took the project any less seriously. \u201cI was ready to run through a brick wall for my director,\u201d he says of his commitment to the piece, which was well matched by his sibling\u2019s. \u201cWhat I learned about my brother during that experience was how in control he was, how he was really born to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Judging by the film, multiple scions of the Washington family are to the manner born\u2014yet all remain refreshingly humble despite their rocket ship success and, of course, hereditary legacy. That is an exceedingly rare quality these days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">You can listen to the entirety of <em>LGM<\/em>\u2019s conversation with John David Washington above, or wherever you listen to podcasts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/story\/john-david-washington-little-gold-men-live\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Piano Lesson stars Denzel Washington\u2019s son John David and is directed by his other son, Malcolm. But the film is no mere adventure in nepotism. John David, playing the same role in this adaptation as he did in a recent Broadway revival of August Wilson\u2019s play, is a voluble storm in the film, joining [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":135340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[27,2269],"class_list":{"0":"post-135339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrity","8":"tag-awards","9":"tag-little-gold-men"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}