Taji Mag Exclusive: Ray Fisher on “The Piano Lesson”

The Piano Lesson is the latest film distributed by Netflix, with an all-star Black lineup in front of and behind the camera. Directed by Malcolm Washington, the film is based on the August Wilson play of the same name and stars Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Ray Fisher, Michael Potts, Erykah Badu, Skylar Aleece Smith, Jerrika Hinton, Gail Bean, with Danielle Deadwyler and Corey Hawkins, produced by Todd Black and Denzel Washington.

Taji Mag got a chance to speak with Ray Fisher about his experience making The Piano Lesson. In the film, Drama Desk nominee Ray Fisher (Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, Justice League) portrays Lymon, a role he reprises from the Broadway revival of the play. Fisher describes the collaborative, family-like atmosphere on set, emphasizing the importance of respect and honor for Wilson’s legacy. He also expresses a deep connection to the character Lymon, highlighting the challenge of transitioning from stage to screen. Read the full interview below.

Catalina Combs: It’s such a pleasure to meet you and talk about this film, The Piano Lesson. It’s such a family collaboration in front of the camera and behind the scenes. What was it like on set for you, and what aspects of this family dynamics were you able to feed off of while filming?

Ray Fisher: It felt very much like what you said. It felt like a family. It felt like you were hanging out at your best friend’s house, or summer camp except, you got to make a movie while doing it. It’s one of those things where it was a joy to be able to get up every day and be excited about seeing the people that you’re going to be seeing during the day and actually working on a piece of material that means a lot to you. It’s a rare thing that you have both of those things aligned. Sometimes the folks could be good, but the material may not be great. Sometimes the material is great, but the people may not be nice, or, you may not get along. This was the perfect storm of both elements, with Malcolm Washington at the forefront, ensuring the environment was as supportive as possible. He created a space filled with respect, honor, love, and grace, allowing us to truly honor August Wilson’s work

The thing that really stuck out to me was how focused we were on the actual work. There was no ego involved in it. We were dealing with people who are masters in their crafts in a lot of ways. People have been doing this for decades upon decades and are able to communicate as though we are on the same level, as peers, working on this project together. That was an experience I will never forget.

Catalina: That’s awesome. You mentioned August Wilson’s importance. Knowing his cultural and historical significance, how does it feel to portray his work on stage and in a big-screen adaptation?

Ray: It’s great. Honestly, he’s probably my favorite character that I’ve played to date because Lymon Jackson allows me to tap into the parts of myself that you sometimes forget over time. The world is tough right now, and it seems to be getting darker by the day. But being able to tap into that part of yourself that is earnest, hopeful, and resilient—that part of you that sees a silver lining, even after enduring so much trauma and hardship—is something I’m deeply appreciative of. I feel honored to play this character because it all has to come from within. It’s like reconnecting with your childhood self, seeing the world for what it could be, rather than what others make you believe it is.

Catalina: It makes sense. I haven’t been fortunate enough to see a lot of August Wilson’s work on stage. What are some of the challenges you face bringing this character from stage to screen?

Ray: Stage is a lot. It’s a much bigger medium in the sense that you’re performing for 1500 to 2000 people, and the movements, in order to convey certain ideas and thoughts to people that are sitting hundreds of feet away from you, are a bit different, right? It’s the difference between using a hammer versus using a scalpel. That’s the difference I equate it to for stage versus film. Luckily, we had a great guiding hand in Malcolm Washington and Mike (Gioulakis), our DP, on this one. They were able to get in there and capture the honest moments of these performances and let you live in a space where you didn’t have to do much. All you had to do was just be there and listen and be engaged. When I’m watching Samuel L. Jackson deliver this monolog, it’s hard not to be engaged. When you see me paying attention and being in awe of certain things, it’s because I’m actually in awe of these people, so it feels like a little bit of a cheat, and that’s just genuinely how I feel. It is the perfect storm of being what the character is also feeling in that moment.

There’s a difference in the stage side of things because you can really self-edit your performance day by day, night by night, and what you do is what you do. The audience is going to see and feel you based on what it is that you’re putting out there. On the film side, what can be tricky sometimes is you give the performance, but then you have to entrust it to the director, the editors, and the post-production folks. After my first conversation with Malcolm, I was like, “Well, I know I’ll be in good hands in post.” So, that’s not an issue. It’s now figuring out how to approach this guy and seeing how he fits in the world of what they’re creating cinematically. Every bit of it really helped – the idea, the costumes, the set – everything helped me find my place and my space in that world. Even the truck that we drive. There’s an old truck, I believe from the 1930s, that was remodeled and put back together for this. There was this awesome sense from our production designer, David Bamba. He really did a phenomenal job making sure that everything was authentic to the world so we could drop ourselves into it.

Catalina: We’re seeing this kind of resurgence of stage to screen. We saw it with the Color Purple, now with this and Wicked, and it’s just getting these theater lovers and film lovers to kind of be on the same page. Do you prefer the stage or film these days?

Ray: They’re different. I just finished doing Macbeth in New Jersey at the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, and I love that production. The cast was phenomenal. I wish I could do it another four weeks. Had such a great time. It was my kind of esthetic for what a show like that could be and should be. I have a love for theater because that’s just where I began. I’m a larger person as well, so being able to get out and just stretch out and fill a space is great. Film is also great. When you do a film, it’s like waiting for Christmas, waiting for the movie to come out, and all of that. Whereas, when you do theater, you have that sort of immediacy of the moment, and there’s something special and unique about it, because once it’s gone, it’s done in a sense.

There’s something that feels a little bit more magical to me about theater and that it says collective experience. All these people have to spend a collective amount of time and energy in the space to really fill it. But there is also something really great about having a history or having a film that exists, or TV that exists, where you can watch the work, and it can be accessible at any point in time. There are pros and cons. It doesn’t necessarily matter what it is, so long as the work is impactful and the people I’m doing the work with are people that I enjoy working with. Those are my only requisites at this point.

Catalina: Having portrayed this character on stage and then getting direction from Malcolm Washington, what aspects of the character did you change or even find different this time around?

Ray: What’s weird is that I think the heart of the character is the same. I think even some of the little nuances you could see in the film that you wouldn’t have seen on stage were still there. They just weren’t as readily accessible because, on stage, the audience looks wherever they want to look. The director ends up guiding your eye by saying, hey, look cross over this way you move here. They know if you start moving, the audience is going to look over in this direction, but they may not see this person over here who’s reacting in a very specific way to what’s happening.

The beautiful thing is, with the camera, you can really tell the audience, hey, you’ve got no choice but to look here for this move and for this reason, whatever that reason may be. If it’s Bernice coming down the stairs or Avery coming in the house, you see Lymon shoot Avery a look because he thinks that Bernice and Avery may be together in some capacity. He might be a little jealous of what that is. Maybe he’s looking at Avery and is going, oh, he’s made a different life for himself up here. He’s wearing a suit. He looks good, while Lymon is in his overalls. He’s in the same sort of clothes that he’d be wearing every day. You can punch into those moments and the audience is still going to interpret it however they interpret it, but it just gives you a lot more freedom to play with the character’s perspective. Part of me feels like I was doing what we do, and there was a lot on Malcolm and our editor, Leslie Jones, to choose what to punch into and when. I’m glad they’re as talented as they are.

Catalina: Awesome. One last question, is there a piece or artifact in your family that you can kind of resonate with when it comes to the piano in this film?

Ray: It probably wouldn’t be like a piano or any sort of knick-knack like that. But we have family photo albums that I’ll look through every now and then. We’ve got a huge bag of photos that aren’t even in albums that we need to try to go through and digitize, catalog all that stuff, so they don’t get lost someday. I’m not a huge stuff guy. I have very few things. I’m trying to just be more appreciative of the people that I’ve got.

Catalina: Thank you so much for your time. I thoroughly enjoyed The Piano Lesson, and I’m looking forward to everyone seeing it soon.

In The Piano Lesson, a family clash over an heirloom piano explodes. The battle between brother and sister – one hopes to sell it, the other refuses to give it up – unleashes haunting truths about how the past is perceived and who defines a family legacy. Watch The Piano Lesson now on Netflix.