Summary
The work of playwrightAugust Wilsonhas been speaking to audiences for decades.
Set in 1936,The Piano Lessontakes place in Pittsburgh during the aftermath of the Great Depression.
Colliders ownSteve Weintraubhad the honor of sitting down with Potts and Jackson to talk aboutThe Piano Lessonand Wilson.
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I thought you guys did fantastic, and I thought Malcolm did an excellent job with this.
I like throwing a curveball at the beginning of all my interviews.
You both have worked on tons of things.
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What shot or sequence through your career do you think might have been the most challenging?
MICHAEL POTTS All the drunk stuff in this one.
So, you still have to work within that frame.
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That’s probably the most challenging.
SAMUEL L. JACKSON: Challenging.
We were playing Russian roulette together.
Follows the lives of the Charles family as they deal with themes of family legacy and more, in deciding what to do with an heirloom, the family piano.
I spin it, pull the trigger, boom, give it back to him.
He pulled the trigger.
So, I’d been with him all that morning, trying to help him through that trauma.
And then we had to go in there and pretend to play suicide with each other all day.
It’s very, very, very, very, very, very difficult.
I can’t even imagine.
JACKSON: It’s the honesty of his vision.
He writes what he sees in his head or what he’s seen.
The conversations aren’t censored or tempered in any way.When it’s angry, its angry.
The emotions that people share with each other come from arealplace, not a made-up space.
POTTS: They’re humans.
All of his characters carry such humanity about them.
It’s accessible to any other human being.
One of the things people might not realize is you worked with August back in 87.
You did this originally when it first came to light.
JACKSON: Well, of course it did!
The speeches were changed and everything else.
I never had a case of the envies like that.
It was like, Should have been me!
Then he got nominated for a Tony, then he won.
I was like, [Screams]!
POTTS: No, he didn’t win!
JACKSON: He didn’t win that year?
POTTS: No, he didnt win that year.
Bringing The Piano Lesson From Stage to Screen
You are both so fantastic in this.
I’m so curious how actors, before the first day of filming, get ready.
JACKSON: Well, we had to learn how to get rid of stuff.
What part of my dialogue is missing?
Am I attached to it in that way?
Or no, I don’t need it?"
POTTS: I was attached to all of it.
The language is so amazing.
The Piano Lessonis available to stream on Netflix.
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