Interview with Antwone Fisher, uncut
This is probably my favorite interview of all the dozens I’ve done this year. Fisher’s story is so impacting. I invite you to read the interview as I transcribed it last night in the Graphic newsroom (there will be some grammatical errors). An edited copy will be published in this Thursday’s paper and online at pepperdine-graphic.com.
Thanks, and happy reading,
J
As a part of Craig Detweiler’s “A Social Science Perspective on Film” class and, in honor of Black History Month, Pepperdine welcomed acclaimed screenwriter and author Antwone Fisher to a screening of the film “Antwone Fisher,” a heartbreaking account of his life directed by Denzel Washington, on Feb. 23. The Graphic had the opportunity to sit down with Fisher to discuss how the film has impacted his life and others.
J: What is it like having your story public?
AF: I don’t think about it. I think that’s what has always made it easy. As time has gone by, I don’t think about it much. I think that when it’s something personal like that, if you think about it too much it would probably be a problem. While I was writing it, I was writing it as if it were someone else’s story- and that’s how you can get through telling it.
J: What do you hope that people take from your story?
AF: There’s always hope and there’s a chance for everything. Everything that you feel is wrong or negative, it can be turned around. You don’t have to do everything alone. There’s other people in the world, people who sometimes had the same issues and people who study to help people who have issues like that.
J: We’re holding this event here at Pepperdine in honor of Black History month, but your story definitely resonates and touches people on many levels.
AF: It’s true. Everywhere I ever was growing up, of course there were black people there, but there were also white people, Italians, kids, and it was a problem. I just happened to be black. I think that why this movie is still around, as opposed to some of the movies that came out when this movie came out, it still comes on television, is because it resonates with people. Not just black people, but people. Human beings, because we all go through similar things that have nothing to do with your race.
J: What is your advice to people who maybe see this movie and relate to you or have shared similar experiences?
AF: What actually helped me was talking about it and maybe the film probably was a big part of me getting past things, writing a book about it, and then of course while I was in the navy, I saw a navy psychiatrist. The thing about psychiatrists that’s funny is I thought they were gonna shrink my head or something, like give me some pills, but the whole thing was to get me to talk about how I felt and I think for some people it’s the harder. It’s easier to take a pill, probably. But to be honest, it’s harder for people. I think that’s why people give psychiatrists a negative rap. They don’t wanna open up, because it’s hard. And it’s embarrassing. People haven’t been able to work through their shame and things like that.
J: Did you actually experience racial slurs and discrimination in the navy?
AF: Yeah, we all did. It wasn’t like I was the victim. I was doing it too. We were all kids, you know. This is truly the miracle of the U.S. Navy: You take people from the Ozarks, from California, from New York and Mississippi, white, Hispanic, oriental, and they put them all in one room where they all gotta live together. Come on, somebody’s gonna call somebody a racial name. But then, after a while, they take you overseas where you’re in some foreign country where you have to depend on one another – then, we don’t see each other’s race or each other’s color. We see each other as Americans, us against them. We play that game until we get back to the States. We’re brothers here. Living like that really brings all of that down. [I] end up with friends that are now who I’ve known since the military who are Polish, we have such a good time talking on the phone.
J: When did you start writing?
AF: I probably started writing, really writing, when I was about… 30. I always wrote poetry and that kind of thing, it wasn’t really good. It was the type of thing that helped me when I was a teenager, expressing my feelings. I would write a poem about how I felt and then destroy the paper because I wouldn’t want anybody to see it. I think it probably was the reason why I wasn’t that intimidated by writing. I didn’t realize just how difficult writing was. I thought it would be as simple as doing a poem, but I found out later that it’s really something you have to learn how to do. There are technical parts to screenwriting.
J: It took you several drafts, didn’t it?
AF: 41. I think it was 41 before they bought it. Between when I wrote it and when I sold it., I must have wrote a hundred.
J: What is your advice to budding writers and filmmakers?
AF: You have to really just write. And if you want to be a director, you have to direct a short film. If you have a friend that’s a writer, get together, enter into festivals. I think writing about subjects that touch people, even if the story or the acting isn’t good, if you write it in a way that people can relate to what you’re trying to convey, then you will win people and then you’ll find people that will help you learn how to actually write.
J: What are some of your more recent projects?
AF: Training Day 2, I wrote for Warner Bros., Detectives 1 and 2, and I have a project, a short film, that I wrote and directed. It stars some recognizable faces. I have a new book, it comes out April 20, called “Boys Should Know How to Tie a Tie, and Other Lessons for Succeeding in Life” for intercity boys. I have some other things – a television project, a couple movie projects that are in the very early stages of development. It takes a long time to make a movie sometimes. You have to always have something going on because not everything’s gonna work out… that’s just like life.
