Denzel Washington speaks to Pittsburgh theater crowd
Sylvester Washington Jr./The Times
“My job was to take care of August Wilson first,” film star Denzel Washington told a South Side Cinemas audience Tuesday. Washington stars in and directed the Pittsburgh-made “Fences,” which was adapted from Wilson’s award-winning play. The movie takes place in the city’s Hill District where Wilson was raised.
Sylvester Washington Jr.|Calkins Media
Denzel Washington encouraged a Pittsburgh movie audience Tuesday to spread the word about “Fences,” a film he stars in and directed this spring in the city’s Hill District.
Sylvester Washington Jr|Calkins Media
Denzel Washington speaks Tuesday night to a crowded theater at South Side Works Cinema ahead of a special screening of his new film, “Fences.”
Sylvester Washington Jr.|Calkins Media
“Fences,” starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, opened on Christmas.
Sylvester Washington Jr./The Times
Denzel Washington speaks Tuesday night at South Side Works Cinema before a special screening of the Pittsburgh-made “Fences.”
He’s traveled halfway around the world promoting his new film “Fences,” though Denzel Washington made sure to return to Pittsburgh to thank city residents for helping him make the film.
“‘Fences’ belongs to you,” Washington said to loud applause from a full-house South Side Works Cinema audience as he introduced a special screening of the film in which he and Viola Davis deliver performances already nominated for Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards.
“People have been asking me everywhere we go, ‘What do I want people to get from this movie?’ and I tell them it depends on what you bring to it,” Washington said, referencing how “Fences” is a film about family. “For some, it’s mothers; for some it’s sons; for some it’s fathers. I know you’ll enjoy it.”
The film opened on Christmas Eve and is set in the 1950s, and takes place in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, where Washington, the movie’s director, insisted on filming this spring.
“Fences” is adapted from the Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning play by Hill District native August Wilson, and Washington said he keenly felt a responsibility to properly represent the late-Wilson’s prose and legacy.
“August Wilson is one of the greatest writers, not just in American history, but in world history,” Washington told Pittsburgh moviegoers, many of whom were extras in the film and from the Hill District. “It is a pleasure and honor, a responsibility and a privilege, to bring this to the screen. The responses have been more than we could have imagined.
“My job was to take care of August Wilson first. To serve our actors second. And to take care of myself after that,” Washington said.
For the audience, it was a thrill to be in the same room with an Oscar winner like Washington, who true to the characters he portrays, came across as someone both highly charismatic yet down to earth.
Sporting a plain black ballcap matching his dark wardrobe, Washington briskly walked into the theater without any fanfare or formal introductions.
“We’re back,” he playfully began in that smooth voice, following with his million-watt smile as he waved to the crowd and said “Merry Christmas to everyone. And Kwanzaa and Hanukkah and what’s left … Feliz Navidad.”
Joining him at the front of the theater was “Fences” producer Todd Black, whose film credits include “The Pursuit of Happyness” with Will Smith, and 2003’s “Antwone Fisher,” the biggest movie up to now that Washington directed.
Black told the Pittsburgh crowd, “I’ve made a lot of movies in a lot of cities all over the world and this was, for sure, No. 1. Everybody here was so helpful and so nice. We loved working here. It was an A-1 experience. Everyone treated us really well. Great food. Great everything. Hope you are as proud of this as we are.”
“It was a fantastic movie. Very dramatic,” said James Howard, one of the film’s extras who originally saw “Fences” performed as a play. “This was a very good adaptation. It’s very tough to take it from a play to a movie and make it entertaining, but it was successful I think.”
Texas resident Jason Shaw, in town for Christmas weekend to spend time with his wife’s family, said he likes seeing movies adapted from plays, and thought Washington knocked “Fences” out of the park.
“I thought it was great,” Shaw said. “I kind of got to see a snapshot of mid-20th century Pittsburgh that I haven’t really been exposed to because I didn’t grow up here. So that was really cool. The performances were really, really, really good. Everyone was very complementary. It seemed like everyone was really pushing the story forward together as opposed to one actor carrying everyone else. It was very even.”
There’s a scene where Davis, the dedicated and emotionally restrained housewife, lets loose with her feelings, matching the temperament of Washington’s larger-than-life husband character.
“When she did that, with those emotions, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is what I came to see,'” Shaw said.
The Rev. Jermaine McKinley, from Bethesda Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh’s Homewood section, saw herself on screen as an extra in the “Fences” church scene, an added thrill for her since she had known Wilson while growing up in the Hill District.
McKinley recalls Wilson being a consummate artist far before he found fame, and still possesses a flier on the back of which Wilson wrote her a poem.
“He’s one of those people who taught us how to be creative in spirit,” McKinley said.
Wilson, who died in 2005, would have found it to be very meaningful that Washington filmed “Fences” in the Hill District and crafted a movie that takes a few minor liberties, but overall adheres to the essence of his work, McKinley said.
“He’d be extremely proud,” she said.