In the course of a pangolin's heat, confinement and three successive waves of pandemic,
John David Washington (Los Angeles, 1984)
has gone from being Denzel's son to Denzel being his father.
The nuance matters so much that he explains it himself.
"It's curious.
Throughout my sporting life as a professional soccer player, all journalists referred to me as the son of the actor.
It seemed like every pass, every
touchdown
, every so often ... he had done it.
In fact, if there was a reason why
the one I didn't want to act was because I didn't feel capable of dragging that slab for life.
If that happened in sports, what wouldn't happen in the cinema ... In the end I jumped in and, what a coincidence, it has been thanks to the cinema that they have stopped reminding me of my father in every interview, in every review, in every comment. .. ».
Maybe I should have started by raising another topic ...
Well, now the questions are about my work, right?
And so it is.
Or almost.
The truth is that he has earned it or, at least, that is how he feels it and, already put, the world in all its extension.
First, in the natural order of the just and Freudian paternal murder, there was the Cannes Festival.
There, at the hands of Spike Lee, his character as a black policeman infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan earned him at least the title of worthy heir.
Then it was the turn of
Tenet
by Christopher Nolan, and with the only
blockbuster
(or almost) that defied the pandemic in theaters came the scandal.
"There is one important thing," he says precisely and to avoid perhaps an uncomfortable question.
And he continues: «Nolan trusted me and
He gave me the role of a spy, not a black spy
or of an African American who is also a spy.
He was a spy and that's it ».
It should be added that he also walks backwards, but that is another matter.
The clarification has to do with much of the argument of what has been his next stop towards confirmation and, yes, death of the father.
Malcolm & Marie
, directed by Sam Levison and just released by Netflix, is the story of an egocentric and exasperated macho film director who at one point becomes enraged because, despite all his efforts and his obvious talent, a criticism only imagined he sees in it a black director bent on talking about his blackness.
"This is one of the moments in the film that, in its own way, also talks about me.
And that is an experience shared by many actors, journalists, cooks or mechanics ...
We do not want to be defined by the African American label only.
I hope to develop a career in which I can be a spy, a narcissistic director or even a cartoon ... And that's it ». That is clear.
Malcolm & Marie
it is a confined movie, shot in confinement, but it has nothing to do with him.
That is, it is not talked about.
Or yes, but in another way more, let's say, existential.
The story of a couple is told (he and
Zendaya
) who arrive home after the premiere of the film directed by the Washington character.
In the long chapter of thanks before a supposedly delivered audience, a forgetfulness: precisely that of the woman to whom he owes everything.
And now, the big fight.
Between
Opening night
, from Cassavetes, and
Secrets of a marriage
By Bergman, the film devotes all its resources to basically screaming.
At one point, in the cataract of recriminations, his character says that one is always ashamed of his origins.
Is it your case?
In part, yes.
There are many things from my beginnings that I would like to forget.
And that's why I'm not going to remember them here.
But I imagine that maturing and growing consists of forgiving yourself, understanding yourself and assimilating all that as part of the journey.
Now I am proud of what I was ashamed of ten years ago.
What is clear is that you cannot be sorry for yourself.
John David Washington says that everyone calls him John.
“According to my father, I am called that way, with two names, after a soccer player and according to my mother after my great-grandfather and my uncle.
Neither of us knows who is right, "he says almost mechanically out of habit.
He also says it feels light.
And it is explained:
«It is as if for the first time I had lifted many of the fears that I was carrying.
When I was offered the script for the film, I saw that my character's monologues stretched across ten pages.
I had never faced something like this.
Then I realized that this was exactly what I needed.
And then he stops at the meticulous description of a film set that, he says, reminded him, again, of the changing room of a football team before a final.
He is aware that in some way he is the protagonist of two antithetical films, each at one point in the debate on the future of cinema: one, Tenet, demands a movie theater;
the other, pure Netflix ... What is left?
Is there something to decide on?
What I think has become clear during the pandemic is that the same momentum that brought together the first humans
around a fire to tell stories
remains unaltered after so long.
What counts is the need to share stories.
The way it is done does not matter and streaming is not incompatible with movie theaters.
Each film needs its space and, without a doubt, they end up complementing each other.
By the end, and perhaps aware of having insisted too much on his desire to get away from his father, John David solemnly declares everything he owes him.
He is still my hero.
It always has been.
Even when I broke a gamer record and the next day the headline was Denzel Washington's Son ... ", he says, taking a second:" I am not ruling out that his next film will be advertised as
that of John David's father ... »
.
And he breaks out laughing.
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