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. The Graphic had the opportunity to sit down with Fisher to discuss how the film has impacted his life and others.
Graphic: What is it like having your story public?
Antwone Fisher: I don’t think about it. I think that’s what has always made it easy. 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.
G: 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 [that] 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.
G: 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. 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 … is because it resonates with people. Not just black people, but people … because we all go through similar things that have nothing to do with your race.
G: What is your advice to people who 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 going to shrink my head or 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 harder. It’s easier to take a pill, probably.
G: 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 going to 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.
G: 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.
G: 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.
G: What is your advice to budding writers and filmmakers?
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.
G: What are some of your more recent projects?
AF: Training Day II I wrote for Warner Bros., Detectives I and II 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 inner-city 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 going to work out… that’s just like life.