Danielle Deadwyler on Ancestors, Oppression, and Bringing the Past to Delicate

How are you grappling with the world at this juncture and your place in it?

I’m taking cues from Piano. Taking cues on—what does it mean to parent children? They are the ones who are so vulnerable and deeply impacted by what’s happening.

When you think about Maretha in the film, all of this is being done because something impacted children. It impacted Berniece. It impacted Boy Willie. All of this is being done in the midst of this serene but very present-looking, listening child in Maretha. I am very much considering: What does it mean to model being a present, loving human being? I’m deeply sensitive to the needs and the love and the energy of children. We all were one at one point.

Has your son seen The Piano Lesson?

He has not yet. He ain’t checking for me [laughs]. There’s so much stuff going on at school. He’s like, “When you bringing them chicken wings home, honey?” “Spot me a couple of twenties.” [laughs].

You really have such an amazing way with words. You’re a writer. You have a master’s degree in imaginative writing.

[Shouting] I love it! I love it! I love writers. My sister’s a writer. I’m a reader. I think everybody comes to whatever they come to in their own way, but it is a really huge deal. This is like, man, let’s respect what it means to come to all of these things, every juncture, every level of the process. I’m a process ho.

I think our humanity is asking us to break it up—to introduce something modern to ourselves so that we can begin to engage it with a different clarity of mind. Hence, my practice of interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary work. Writing and reading inform a more enriched performative practice. Being a lover of all kinds of other folks’ works of art informs your process. Learning about history informs the process. Constant curiosity just makes for a fuller experience.

As a fellow lover of craft and process, it feels like we’re losing that in Hollywood. Are you worried about that at all?

No, I’m never worried. I always know that there is somebody doing it. The question is are they pedestal-ized as much as the more commercial thing? There’s value to all of the things. There is never not someone doing something different or something that is being asked for—or that moves in a more queer, strange, non-respectability way. It’s always present. The question is, are you rummaging through the archives? Are you asking the right people? Is it coming in another form that you haven’t sought yet? You have to be asking for it and you have to be seeking it.