Page 52 - My FlipBook 1

he watched himself inhabit the man onscreen. He that he’s taken the lead in. So he gets to do all kinds ton was physically wrecked, unable to run for
left the screening and cried for days. Then he called of different things. That athleticism also puts itself more than a month.
his old teacher Rochelle Oliver. into the way he walks down the street and the way “There were some times I couldn’t get up out of
“I was pacing around my apartment in the dark. he talks and the way he moves,” Nolan says. “I bed. A couple weeks in, I was worried, very con-
Why didn’t he do something? Why did he make that remember years ago reading an account of when cerned I wasn’t going to be able to finish this thing,
decision? Why did I make the decision as an actor? [Bond franchise producer] Cubby Broccoli first and I didn’t want to tell anybody because I was like,
Was I supposed to do something else?” he says. saw Sean Connery and considered him to play ‘Oh, I will die for this,’ ” Washington says. “It was
“It makes me cry to talk about it,” Oliver tells me. James Bond. He looked out the window and like, in the NFL, I felt like I needed to be there every
“I said, ‘What happened to you is a testament to how watched him walk away at the end of the meeting day to keep my job, and I felt the same way about
beautifully and how deeply you work. It was about and said, ‘He moves like a panther, he moves like this. This film deserves it. Even if I break some-
your child, protecting him, and it was so personal a cat, like a catlike grace,’ and I think John David thing, I am not going to say nothing to nobody until
to you, and that’s what you were crying about.’ ” has his own version of that. In every move, there’s this thing gets done.”
Right around that time, BlacKkKlansman pre- this extraordinary athleticism and energy. This
miered at Cannes. Spike Lee sat behind Christo- kind of controlled energy just fits this type of char-
pher Nolan. Every so often, Lee snuck a glance at acter so well. He’s just extraordinarily graceful.” E P I L O G U E
the writer-director to see how he was reacting to Washington stars opposite Robert Pattinson,
his film and his star. Lee recounts this story and and the success of the film rides on the chemistry We wrap up our Zoom call, an awkward thing to
then tells me to take down a note to read to Nolan between the two, Nolan says. The actors met shortly do with someone with whom you’ve spent hours
when I talk to him later in the week. before filming, when Pattinson invited his new discussing every detail of their life but whom you
“Ask him, say, ‘Dear Chris, this is your cinema castmates to his thirty-third-birthday party in L. A. may never talk to again. He says he’s got to get
brother, Spike Lee. I’m looking forward to seeing “He turned up late, and by that point I was very ready for dinner; it’s his twin siblings’ birthday,
Tenet, starring the great, great John David Wash- much in a convivial spirit, and then it was him and and he’s getting dressed up in a suit and tie (and
ington. Thank you for casting him and making Aaron Taylor-Johnson turned up, and I think I was bare feet) to eat with them—they’re quarantined
yourself look good. Thank you for casting him, for just screaming and shouting at them for like an together—and they’ll be having Pauletta’s famous
hoisting him into the stratosphere. My question hour, and I suddenly regretted everything I said mac and cheese.
for you is: Did you decide that you’re going to cast afterward, and so I thought maybe we’re off to a As he heads off to his family dinner, I think about
John David Washington at the world premiere of really bad start, but he was very sweet about it,” movie stars. Not celebrities, who seem to pop up
BlacKkKlansman?’ ” Pattinson says. “He’s so positive and not positive every day, but Movie Stars. The kinds of actors who
So I ask. in a really annoying way, like he’s definitely . . . you draw people to theaters in droves, who inspire
Nolan laughs. “Oh, very much,” he says. “By the can definitely push him a little bit to be naughty. directors, whose names we shorten as if we know
way, it was a pretty intense experience to sit in He doesn’t mind when other people are naughty.” them personally: Newman, Eddie, Cruise, Denzel,
front of Spike Lee at the premiere. And no, it very The cast traveled to seven countries over several Brad, J-Law. And I think about Washington, the
much sort of felt like destiny to me. That was an months to film the movie, which Nolan has called Washington we’re talking about today. I get the dis-
extraordinary screening, and the audience his most ambitious yet. As with all of his films, the tinct feeling from him, and dozens of people who
response to Spike’s movie was really electric in public knows nearly nothing about the premise of know him, that he’s about to break into this strato-
that room at Cannes; it was quite something. And Tenet, beyond the fact that it’s an espionage thriller. sphere. There’s a quiet confidence that appears to
I just felt a sort of magnetism there. It really was “It’s an incredibly complicated movie, like all show he knows it, too. What will we call him when
an important thing for me in terms of feeling like of Chris’s movies. I mean, you have to watch them he reaches this level of renown, when the rest of
it was meant to be somehow.” when they’re completely finished and edited three the world feel like they know him in the way all the
Nolan had first seen Washington in Ballers years or four times to understand what the true mean- people I interviewed do? John David? JD? JDW?
before. He had no idea who he was—didn’t know ing is,” Pattinson says. He pauses for a moment, When we talked about the start of his second
his name or who his dad was. He was just struck then continues with a self-deprecating laugh. career, Washington described “chopping wood.”
by his charisma onscreen. Nolan, who writes many “When you’re doing them, I mean, there were Yes, there would be headlines invoking his dad.
of his films, including Tenet, generally tries not to months at a time where I’m like, ‘Am I . . . I actu- Yes, he booked a flashy HBO show after his first
think about casting while he’s writing his scripts. ally, honestly, have no idea if I’m even vaguely time auditioning. Yes, he could have coasted from
But with Tenet, he simply couldn’t get Washington understanding what’s happening.’ And yeah, I there. But he continued to chop wood, flying back
out of his head. So he called the actor, who was would definitely say that to John David. On the last and forth to the acting studio, spending his off time
still filming Ballers at the time, into a meeting. day, I asked him a question about what was hap- studying with veteran actor Henderson.
“In my first conversation with him, he just felt pening in a scene, and it was just so profoundly It’s built up to this moment. A moment on pause.
like somebody on the cusp of really great things. the wrong take on the character. And it was like, Tenet posters with Washington’s image are hang-
And so from a selfish point of view as a filmmaker, ‘Have you been thinking this the entire time?’ . . . ing in theaters that are still and empty, time cap-
you immediately think, I’d like to be a part of that There’s definitely a bond in the end in kind of hid- sules reminding us what we looked forward to
actor’s journey. I’d like to harness that energy that ing the fact that maybe neither one of us knew before the pandemic struck. All of us are waiting
he has,” Nolan says. The role Washington has taken exactly what was going on. But then I thought, Ah, for it to end, for something that resembles nor-
on is that of a pragmatic secret agent with a genu- but John David actually did know. He had to know malcy to return, when we can walk into a movie
ine warmth and humanity. Washington’s history what was going on." theater and allow a Movie Star to transport us else-
as an athlete helped convince Nolan as well. Nolan’s films often have a complex action scene where for a couple hours. When this does happen,
“The film has more action than any film I’ve that fans end up obsessively dissecting. In Tenet, there will be Washington, our new movie star—
ever done. It has a plethora of action sequences the action is relentless. After wrapping, Washing- John David, JD, JDW—filling the screen.

52 SUMMER 2020