Daughter Bernice (Deadweiler) hasn’t played the piano since her siblings’ mother died. Instead, it stands in her living room and serves as a reminder of what her ancestors endured as slaves.
Faces of previous generations of the family were carved into the wood of the piano. But while Bernice refuses to even move the piano, her brother Boy Willie (John David Washington) wants to sell it to buy land.
Speaking at Deadline’s Contender event in London,, external John David Washington described the attitude of the cast and crew as “fearless”.
“It was so fearless because we immediately thought, OK, we’re doing it our movie, he said. – There are many versions of this story, and this one is ours.
“We’re going to put it through our filter of honesty and truth and vulnerability and put ourselves on the line and push it to the point that when you get to the end, the spirit will still be there.”