The Piano Lesson, Themla & First-Time Directors on Joining Oscar Race

With every awards season comes something new: emerging talent, groundbreaking technology, fresh storylines. This season, at least six new directors hit the ground running. Actor Embeth Davidtz (Schindler’s List, Matilda and The Morning Show) wrote and made her feature directorial debut, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, about a white Zimbabwean family following the Rhodesian Bush War; actor Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire, Fargo, American Hustle), a grandson of John Huston, wrote and helmed the boxing drama Day of the Fight; Malcolm Washington, son of Denzel Washington, co-wrote and directed The Piano Lesson, based on the August Wilson play; cinematographer Rachel Morrison (Black Panther, Mudbound) jumped behind the camera for The Fire Inside,another boxing movie; Josh Margolin wrote and directed Thelma, based on something that happened to his grandmother; and film editor William Goldenberg (Argo, Zero Dark Thirty) helmed Unstoppable, about a boxer born with one leg.

In an exchange conducted several weeks ago, Davidtz, Washington, Huston, Morrison and Margolin (Goldenberg was unable to participate due to his production schedule) discussed the challenges they faced, whom they turned to for advice and what it was like getting a movie made in a world of ongoing tension and conflict.

Why did you feel that now was the right time to make your directorial debut? 

EMBETH DAVIDTZ In many ways, the directing of the film chose me. I had optioned the book in order to play the part of the mother. Then I wrote the screenplay, but I couldn’t find a director who I felt really understood the material. That’s when I made the leap to direct it myself.

JACK HUSTON For me, it was about waiting for the right idea. I’ve tinkered with stories and have written all my life, so when I conceived Day of the Fight, I knew in my heart it was the one to go all-in for. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some of my heroes, and through my years on set, I’ve learned that confidence is key in creating a great picture. Ultimately, it comes down to mutual trust and how far you’re willing to go to push the boundaries together.

MALCOLM WASHINGTON I really never thought of it in these terms. I think this specific work found me at a time when I was most ready to engage in its themes. It was a text that I was immediately inspired by and needed to engage with, whether I was making the film or not. I was trying to imagine my future and make sense of the present by looking into my past, and ultimately beyond myself, and into the legacies of my ancestors. They spoke to me with this work. 

JOSH MARGOLIN The movie is inspired by a real scam incident that happened to my grandma a few years back. The idea started to take shape in the wake of that, and sitting down to write it forced me to really take stock of our relationship and the moment she was facing in life. The movie became a love letter to her and a way to celebrate her spirit and tenacity. It was very much born of my own life, and I couldn’t imagine handing it over to someone else. I’d spent a lot of my 20s focusing on writing, acting and editing, but this one was just a story I wanted to tell. It would have felt so odd to just be like, “Hey, please tell the story of my grandma through the lens of a lo-fi action movie!” I also knew the tone was going to be a tightrope walk, but it was a tightrope I was excited to try to make it across.

RACHEL MORRISON When Barry Jenkins and Elishia Holmes brought me The Fire Inside, I was so moved and inspired by Claressa’s story that I knew this was the one to go all-in on. For years, many of my collaborators, such as Ryan Coogler and Rick Famuyiwa, had tried to convince me to take the leap into directing, but I felt I still had so much more to give as a cinematographer. After lensing Black Panther and Mudbound, every script I read to shoot felt like a step backward, and I knew it was time for a new challenge. But still, it took many moons to find a script that felt worthy of the risk. 

What were some of the challenges you faced that you hadn’t anticipated or no one had warned you about?

DAVIDTZ Because the lead of the film was 7 years old, under South African labor laws, I only had three hours a day to work with her; this created a massive amount of pressure. Getting the day’s work done under those time constraints was extremely challenging. 

MORRISON You mean besides a global pandemic, a studio merger and two strikes?! I don’t think I realized how much falls squarely on your shoulders as the director and how you have to maintain a singular vision and advocate for it from prep to post and even through a film’s release. Also, I never understood what people meant when they said directing can be lonely, because I always saw the director surrounded by a team of collaborators. But that team ebbs and flows while the director is still living and breathing the project, sometimes years after it was begun. 

WASHINGTON I didn’t fully understand how much of yourself you have to pour into a film. I knew how much time and energy you’d have to commit, but you have to bring your heart and soul, submit your entire being to the film in order for it to maintain its pulse. 

MARGOLIN The social element of making a movie is something I didn’t totally understand until I was in it. I love working in a collaborative environment, and that part felt very familiar, but I quickly realized that I felt a great deal of responsibility for everything and everyone. There was a bit of a fake-it-till-you-make-it learning curve in terms of feeling as if I could be in charge, especially on a production with so many actors who have been working longer than I’ve been alive. I quickly realized that, although occasionally intimidating, being surrounded by that amount of experience was a gift.

HUSTON In today’s world, getting a movie made is almost an impossible feat. We faced big challenges from the get-go, namely making a period film in black and white. Securing financing will always be the biggest struggle for a film like this. We lovingly renamed the film “Fight of the Day” because every day was a battle. In independent film, once one problem is solved, another arises. But when you believe in something as much as we believed in this film, you persevere.

Did you find it easier or harder to direct your film given that you wrote the screenplay, too?

DAVIDTZ It was so much easier to direct having written the script. I felt like the act of writing it gave me layers of detail, which informed every directorial choice. The 20-year history of the family in that country was so deeply embedded in me from writing it that I always felt like I had an encyclopedia of ideas in the back of my head. It was like writing a test for which I had studied really, really well! 

WASHINGTON I find it easier to direct a screenplay I’ve written because it gives me a kind of ownership over the story. In any given moment, I felt so comfortable cutting a scene or a line, rewriting on set when an actor had a great idea or changing things on the fly because I wrote it. It gave me a kind of freedom and autonomy on set.

MARGOLIN It was always a balancing act writing characters based on real people — including myself and my family members. In many ways, it was helpful to be pulling from life, but there were times when the movie required characters to make decisions their real counterparts wouldn’t necessarily make. I had to get used to thinking about them through the lens of the story while still utilizing all the little details and mannerisms that made them specific. The Daniel character — which is very much an avatar for me — was challenging in a particular way: In the early days of writing the script, I always felt like his scenes sounded good and natural, but making sure his larger arc was properly calibrated was trickier. I think certain things felt self-evident to me that weren’t always quite as clear on the page. So I had to learn to step those out a bit in further revisions. Overall, I think I found it easier to direct because I’d written it, as opposed to harder. I felt very protective of the characters and the tone, and I think having and following that strong gut feeling was a useful North Star when putting it on its feet.

Did you seek advice from anyone? 

DAVIDTZ I actually asked [cinematographer] Janusz Kaminski for advice because I was worried about lenses and framing and how to technically approach the scenes. He told me, “You will know what lens to use. You are an instinctive actor, so similarly, just trust your instincts regarding the visuals and what your eye is hungry to see. That will tell you how to shoot it.”

MARGOLIN I spoke to a couple of pals who had recently directed films of their own: some for the first time, some who had made a few before that. My biggest takeaway was that you’re going to have good days and bad days. There’s a lot you can control, but there’s a lot you can’t, and it’s about creating an environment where people can bring themselves comfortably to the work. Building trust was essential.

HUSTON My favorite part of making a film is the collaborative aspect. I love working with passionate individuals who share a belief in the project. While it’s crucial to lean on trusted collaborators, you also need a strong vision of what the film should be — all starting with the script. The common thread among everyone involved is a deep commitment to the project and a willingness to give it everything you have. You’ll sacrifice time with loved ones, endure sleepless nights and face days when you think you can’t carry on — so you’d better make it count. This process doesn’t end when you say “cut” on your final shoot day. The job isn’t finished until the film is out in the world.

WASHINGTON I spoke to a lot of filmmaker friends of mine, first-timers and experienced pros, to get a better understanding of what was ahead of me. The best advice I got was about team building, fighting as hard as you can to work with great, collaborative craftspeople — people whose work you admire and that you have a shared creative language. 

You are campaigning your film at a time that is fraught both domestically and internationally — have protests and/or the discourse impacted your filmmaking or campaigning? 

DAVIDTZ Not really. If anything, the state of the world has given a film about a child who lives during a war a certain relevance and poignancy in the discussions.

WASHINGTON The Piano Lesson is a film that speaks to a culture that has endured and persevered through hardship. It’s a film that takes a long hard look at the promise of America, its ideals, its dreams, its secrets, its atrocities. It challenges America’s righteousness and all that it purports to be and in that confrontation finds the voice of a people, reclaiming their own identity retelling their own history. I think the discourse in our country only highlights the power and relevance of the themes that August Wilson wrestles with in this work. 

MARGOLIN It’s made me keenly aware of the fragility of the thing — and the ways in which it’s both meaningful but also an absolute privilege to be able to make creative work.

At the same time, there is a bit of industry malaise — what does it mean to get a movie made in a time like this?

WASHINGTON We all feel the anxiety and uncertainty of our industry right now, so I’m grateful to have had an opportunity to make a film with my friends. Unfortunately, it’s an increasingly rare experience, but I hope with time, the industry will find its footing and we’ll get back to making more films soon.

MARGOLIN I feel phenomenally lucky that we were able to get this movie off the ground. It’s in no small part thanks to my producers Zoë Worth and Chris Kaye, who championed the project from the beginning and have worked tirelessly on it for years. We had a homegrown approach. It was essentially a group of friends deciding we were going to find a way to get this made. As we added partners, a lot of them met us where we were in terms of passion and enthusiasm, and that made for a really cohesive and driven team. My background is really in making things — be it shorts, plays, web series, sketches, etc. — so in a way it felt like a return to those roots. You have to go into it feeling like you have to make it. Because if not, it’s really easy to find reasons to not go through with it, especially if you’re looking for that engine outside of yourself.

HUSTON It’s an incredibly difficult time to make a film, as the industry has been restructuring for quite some time. In today’s world, securing distribution and a solid release plan can often be more difficult than making the film itself. In an industry that was founded on black-and-white films, we still faced a lot of pushback for this very reason. I wish there were more risk-takers, more mavericks — people willing to stand up and fight for the movies they believe in. I made this film to be seen in a theater, as a shared experience, just like the films that made me fall in love with cinema. But sadly, I sometimes feel that the art is being influenced by numbers and algorithms rather than being driven by love. Nevertheless, I believe in the power of film and believe audiences are still eager for that experience. It’s just a matter of discovering new ways to get them excited again.

MORRISON This movie was many years in the making, and its mere existence is nothing shy of a miracle, which I guess evokes a resilience and grit that echoes [protagonist] Claressa’s and hopefully inspires other filmmaking friends to keep persisting in these turbulent times. 

DAVIDTZ Getting the film made feels like a miracle. I think our very small budget helped to get it done. If I had been attempting this with a bigger budget in play, it might never have happened.

Since your films have become awards contenders, has that prompted more meetings? And how would you describe how the tenor of that outreach has changed?

DAVIDTZ It has definitely broadened the scope of the conversations I am having. As an actor, one travels down a specific corridor. The writer-director gets to enter a whole different world. It feels like I stepped into Narnia via the wardrobe and am now talking about a much bigger world than I was as an actor.

MORRISON I suppose the number of meetings has ramped up, but the real shift is a sense of urgency with which producers or production companies are actively vying to find a project I will attach to, all the while knowing I am nothing if not picky … and patient.

HUSTON I like the contender reference because On the Waterfront is and forever will be one of my all-time favorite films. We’re on the precipice of releasing our film, and the overwhelmingly positive response from our screenings and festival circuit makes us hopeful that it will connect with a wider audience. We wanted to create something that resonates and stays with people long after the end credits roll. If this will lead to more opportunities behind the camera, I welcome it with open arms, because I’ve loved this experience and am so very grateful for it. I would also hope that my film encourages industry movers to take a risk on a first-time filmmaker, or perhaps greenlight that passion project that was pushed aside years ago.

MARGOLIN The reception has been beyond our wildest dreams, and the fact that we’ve been able to keep talking about it and sharing it with people has been really special and cool. I keep thinking we’ve hit the end of the road, and it’s been wonderful to be continually wrong about that. I know it’s coming though, so I’m just trying to enjoy it while it lasts!

WASHINGTON As of right now, I’ve only made one movie (and it’s not even out yet), so nothing has really changed for me. I’ve gotten a few more emails, and I got to meet Ken Burns at Telluride. That’s been the highlight so far. 

This story appeared in the Nov. 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.