These days you won’t find many people who consider debate to be a sport worthy of public interest, but Denzel Washington’s inspirational new movie “The Great Debaters” takes viewers back to a time when that wasn’t the case.

The year is 1935 and the locale, Marshall, Texas, is a place where segregation is the norm and lynching is still commonplace. At all-black Wiley College, professor Melvin B. Tolson (Washington) coaches a small group of students into becoming a world-class debate team.  

Already nominated for a Golden Globe for best picture, Washington’s sophomore directorial effort is based on a true story of triumph against harsh racial prejudice in the Jim Crow South. Opening nationwide on Christmas day, the film also stars Forest Whitaker, and three newcomers—Jurnee Smollett, Nate Parker and Denzel Whitaker (no relation to Forest)—as the titular great debaters.

In a recent conversation about the film, Washington discussed his views on directing, the importance of education and what’s changed—and what hasn’t—when it comes to racism in America.


What is the most rewarding thing for you about directing?
The best thing about it is getting the opportunity to make a movie. I know as an actor how hard it is to get the opportunity and to get to a position to get good parts. People talk about Academy Awards, but you can’t be considered unless you have a good role, and good roles are hard to come by.

Considering the success you had with Derek Luke in “Antwone Fisher” did you set out to cast lesser known actors as the leads in “The Great Debaters”?
No, not really. I mean, if the movie had been about three 70-year olds I don’t think we would have new actors, but maybe. These were the actors and these were the roles. I didn’t decide to do this film solely because I saw a great opportunity for young actors. I read a piece of material that interested me and that I was moved by.

Did you ever talk about the art of directing with Spike Lee or any of the great filmmakers you’ve worked with or did you use anything from those experiences when you were directing?
We didn’t talk a lot then, but I have a greater appreciation for what a director does now. I had no idea; I thought it was just action, cut and then the press junket. It’s a little bit more than that. I have studied Spike’s work and I have been fortunate to have worked with some great filmmakers. I go back and look at a lot of their work. Suddenly things click and make sense. Things that I might have learned from Spike, from Jonathan Demme, Ridley Scott or whoever, that I was unable to apply yet. Now as a filmmaker, I’m able to apply it all.  

Racism is also a big topic in the film, how do you think what’s portrayed in the film compares to today?
Oprah and I are on the cover of Ebony next month, and up in the corner there’s a story about nooses, you know the whole thing that’s going on with the noose coming back. I was like “wow, things have changed, but they haven’t changed.” It’s 2007 and on the January 2008 cover of Ebony magazine there’s a story about nooses. I guess it wasn’t even news then. So that’s the difference, that it’s news now.

And what about debate? It’s almost hard to imagine a time when debate was so popular, as it is in the film.
I don’t know if it ever will be like it was but I think spoken word is still popular. There’s no coincidence that one of the dominant contributors to our culture right now is hip-hop or rap, which is going back to poetry, whether you like what they’re saying or not. I didn’t do it in any obvious way, but I wanted to make that connection to spoken word.  These guys were doing basically what rappers do, they’re spittin’. It’s verbal Jiu Jitsu.  

It’s such a different time now, but what do you think is the main issue facing the education of young people today?
It’s our responsibility as parents. The bottom line is that the environment was created for the students at Wiley College. It didn’t happen in a vacuum. It is still our responsibility as adults to create that environment, which we have not done. If you look at politics and anything else, we spend so much time on the negative. I’m not pointing fingers, but whatever troubles our young people have are our fault. Period. I don’t care how you slice it, we created this world that they were born into and it’s our responsibility to try and create an environment for them to excel. That’s what happened in Wiley.  Someone was there and someone had to make a sacrifice for them to excel.

What do you tell your own kids about education?
My kids grew up with, “do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do.” It’s the same theme as in the movie. Everything that we sell our kids [tells them] that they can have things fast, that you don’t have to do anything. Just put a few lines down on a piece of paper and you can be a millionaire rapper tomorrow. We don’t talk about the process to get there. The idea is to work hard so you can feel good having done that. To learn that lesson at 19, 20, or 21 is too late.

Do you hope to make more films about the untold stories of African American history?
Well, I don’t know what I’m going to do next. This was just a really good story. I call it a sports movie. In those days, that’s what they considered a spectator sport and it was a very popular event to go to. When I interviewed Mel Tolson’s son and Henrietta Wells, who was the inspiration for Jurnee’s character, what they talked about was how prepared they were. When they went up on that stage they were not intimidated by anyone. And in our film we changed it. I said I wanted them to debate Harvard, when in fact the national champions were USC. There’s no question that whoever they went up against they beat.

You will be prompted to register or log in when posting.

Comment

Please note that by clicking on "Post Comment" you acknowledge that you have read the Terms of Service. Be polite. Inappropriate posts may be removed by the moderator.