Washington treaded lightly in adapting 'Fences' to film
NEW YORK — When August Wilson’s widow toured the set for the new movie based on his play “Fences,” she carefully examined the modest two-story brick house, the small yard and the tree where a ball hung from a rope — and she wept.
Constanza Romero, who lost her playwright husband in 2005, has visited many theatrical sets for Wilson’s most popular and perhaps most personal play, but the one used for its first film adaptation reconnected her with him. “It was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. I’m inside August Wilson’s world. This is August Wilson’s world complete,’” Romero recalled. “It was just such a feeling that August’s words had become three-dimensional.”
Romero found herself in tears, trying to catch her breath, when she glanced at Denzel Washington, the film’s director and star. “Oh, I understand,” he told her. “I understand those tears.”
The tears were as much out of relief as gratitude. Adapting Wilson’s masterpiece has taken more than 30 years and it’s easy to see why: It’s a two-hour, dialogue-heavy story rooted in a front yard in Pittsburgh’s Hill District.
Washington, who won a Tony for his performance in the Broadway revival of “Fences” seven years ago, made some key decisions when he was first tapped to translate the play onto 35 mm film. First, he reunited five of the main actors from the Broadway revival — himself, Viola Davis, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Russell Hornsby and Mykelti Williamson. Then he added up-and-comers Jovan Adepo and Saniyya Sidney. Then he put them in an actual front yard in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. There would be no Hollywood sound stages this time. Just a worn, small home with plastic-covered furniture in the neighborhood where Wilson grew up.
“Once it was clear we were all getting that same band back together, with a couple of new hot players and a little different arrangement — and doing it in Pittsburgh — then I knew that there was no way it wasn’t destined to at least be respectful,” said Henderson, who’s performed a number of Wilson’s plays.
Since opening wide on Christmas, the Paramount release has made $32.4 million, making it one of the more lucrative stage-to-screen adaptations in recent years.
“Fences,” set in 1957, tells the story of Troy Maxson, a larger-than-life garbage man whose dashed dream of baseball glory in a white world of pro ball has given him a rigid, embittered sense of responsibility that has a profound effect on his wife, Rose, and his sons.
Washington, who plays Maxson, had to tread carefully, respecting the play’s stifling, claustrophobic quality but also making it cinematic. He added short scenes like kids playing stickball, a time-lapse montage and a few forays away from the home that are referenced in the text.
“Fences” is only the second of Wilson’s works to be adapted for the screen. The other was an edited version of “The Piano Lesson” that aired in 2002 on the Hallmark channel.
Washington will produce an additional nine Wilson’s plays for HBO.
