Antwone Fisher (film) - Production

Production

Antwone Fisher explains in his novel Finding Fish, that he took a free screen writing class at Bethel A.M.E. Church after a chance encounter with a limo driver. The class was taught by Chris Smith, who delivered an introduction to a producer named Todd Black. Black was impressed with Fisher’s story. Black reviewed the script for a week and told Fisher that though he couldn’t make a deal, he wanted to hire him full-time as a screenwriter. Fisher wrote 41 drafts until the script was sold by Black to 20th Century Fox. The film marks the directorial debut of Denzel Washington, the first screenwriting credit for Antwone Fisher, and the first feature film-role for Derek Luke. Washington was brought the script originally just to play the part of Jerome Davenport. But Washington’s agent called Black and told him he not only wanted to act in the film, he wanted it to be his directorial debut.

Fisher had known Luke as a young actor working at the Sony Pictures gift shop while he was writing the screenplay. Fisher encouraged Luke to try out for the part. Washington was impressed with Luke’s audition and asked that he personally deliver the good news. Washington (aware that he was working with an unknown) stated that he wanted to give a younger generation of black actors their chance to come alive on-screen. To prepare the cast, Washington required each actor to know his/her character's history and story inside out before coming to the set. This mandate included everyone from Luke in the title role to key cast members like Vernée Watson Johnson, who plays Fisher's long-lost Aunt Annette, Novella Nelson in the role of Fisher's foster mother Mrs. Tate, Viola Davis as Fisher's mother, newcomer De'Angelo K. Wilson, seen opposite Eminem in 8 MILE, as the grown-up Jesse, Malcolm David Kelley as the young Antwone, and Corey Hodges as the teenage Antwone. Washington repeatedly told the cast and crew “We’re doing it for Antwone.”

Inspired by the story of a man who found hope and love through the help of an outstretched hand. In turn, the filmmakers sought to give back to the communities that supported them during the shoot. In the Cleveland neighborhood where the scenes of Fisher's youth and homecoming were shot, the filmmakers went out of their way to leave the urban area and its people in a better place than when they arrived. Structures like the apartment building where Eva Mae Fisher lived in the film and the house that was shot as Fisher's foster home were renovated and/or reinforced. Members of the community were hired to work on the production or as part of its preparation, and always Washington was out and about meeting people, shaking hands and offering thanks for their help.