Netflix’s adaptation of August Wilson’s play, The Piano Lesson, is a powerful film about the Charles family in 1936 Pittsburgh and their family piano, an heirloom decorated in designs carved by their enslaved ancestor. Music serves as important storytelling aspect of this film, and Offscreen Central had the privilege to speak with music supervisor, Deva Anderson about the role of the piano, collaborating with Malcolm Washington on his directorial debut, and the powerful ending scene with Danielle Deadwyler.

Sarah Abraham: Hi, Deva!
Deva Anderson: Hi! Nice to meet you, Sarah.
Sarah Abraham: Nice to meet you too. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today.
Deva Anderson: It’s my pleasure. I’m a big fan of your guys’ podcast and website.
Sarah Abraham: Oh, thank you so much.
Deva Anderson: Seriously, highlighting female and non binary critics and artisans? Love it!

Sarah Abraham: Thank you. That means a lot, especially because The Piano Lesson was one of my favorite films of the year. I’m a huge, I don’t want to say “nerd,” but nerd, because I love reading old literature and plays, and I read August Wilson’s works, when I took a course during my master’s degree called “African American History”. I was also a music major. So The Piano Lesson, really, it was like combining both of my worlds and my interests. So, I’m excited to talk to you about today.
Deva Anderson: I’m excited to talk to you too. When you said that, that gave me chills. I feel like we need to go to coffee and have a whole other conversation, because it’s one of my one of my passion projects too. But I’ll let you go ahead.

Sarah Abraham: Can you share how you became attached to this film and what excited you about it?
Deva Anderson: What excited me was similar to what you’re saying in your background. I studied Black American music from the slave era through the development of rap and hip hop, and it was one of my senior theses in college. It was one of my just absolute favorite genres and also how historically, you know, music melds into so many areas in our lives and changes through the generations. I too am a fan of August Wilson and was familiar with the play on Broadway, but this in particular, it just really drew me in because the director and screenwriter, Malcolm Washington, had such an exciting vision of how to put it to life on film. He was so much fun to work with and Rachel Lautzenheiser who is my co-supervisor on this, we had just a delightful time teaming with him for music on the film.

Sarah Abraham: I love that. That was one of my questions about what it was like working with Malcolm, because seeing interviews of him, he really did treat this film as a passion project, something he really was excited to do. You can see that because I found the visuals really striking along with the acting. I loved the incorporation of the music within the the film. You see it in the play, but I think with the film, it allows more creativity. Can you talk about how you, Rachel and Malcolm, incorporated the piano’s presence in this film, almost like it’s a main cast member and plays such an important part in depicting the history of the Charles family?
Deva Anderson: Yeah, it really does tie to the original literature of the play and, you know, just one of the themes of The Piano Lesson, kind of, is what defines a family legacy and focusing on the heirloom piano and how the siblings have different ideas of what value is and what to bring into the future and what is left behind. It made the piano such as you said, it’s a character in the story, and it had a life of its own. So kind of joining forces and us coming on board with Malcolm, you know, he had been living with this project, and obviously co-screenwriting it with Virgil Williams. To hear interviews with him, you hear him talk about the transformation of what it was for him. But, on the musical side, there were a lot of things that we all discovered together, and there were a lot of things that he had a very specific vision on. One of those visions was bringing contemporary music in which we did as well. But, the piano itself, how Malcolm teamed with, I can’t speak to how he did this, but in terms of the construction of the piano and with the set designer, and we were involved in all aspects of, you know, with the piano tuner. Of exactly how it should be sounding when each character, if they were playing, we were involved in pre records. So it really was, it was like tenderizing this character that was part of the life of the story.

Sarah Abraham: I like that you talked about bringing a contemporary sound to the film because I really loved that you incorporated some gospel music into here, and then some modern as well. Can you elaborate on that?
Deva Anderson: Yeah, there were two performances by Erykah Badu, which was in the Crawford Grill, and that was something that originally was not in the play. So, the Crawford Grill, there is some historical reference of that being in the sphere of the town, but Malcolm really wanted to incorporate a live performance into the feature, and so that was an entirely new written and envisioned scene from him. There was so much that went into that obviously, his collaboration with Erykah, the songs that she wrote, The song that she covered, all of the things as music supervisors, what we’re involved with, like prepping for pre production, production onset, and all the technical aspects, the playback, casting the musicians, and all of those things. Those are a lot of things that we do behind the scenes that a lot of people don’t realize we’re involved with as music supervisors. To speak to your question about the gospel track, you know, I think Malcolm was listening, when he was writing the screenplay, to certain genres for different characters. So, he had a very specific thing for the Avery character (Corey Hawkins), for the gospel song and things like that. With the other contemporary ones, we had so much fun just going back and forth on song ideas and sending playlists. Malcolm is one of the most collaborative directors I’ve ever worked with, and we had a lot of fun with it, you know, because in creating music for film, that’s one of the the terrific things that kind of evolves in the different processes of pre production, production and post production. So sometimes things are not revealed until much later into the film editing of what’s needed musically.

Sarah Abraham: That’s interesting. Thank you for sharing that perspective. What were some of the songs on your playlist, or songs that Malcolm had that were inspirational when working with him on this?
Deva Anderson: I think, you know, it took a lot of vision and a lot of risk for him to really put something like a Fela Kuti track in there, for it’s a period piece. It takes place in the 1930s and then the opening scene, which was something we had suggested that he really loved. It’s by the band SALT, and it is the scene when Boy Willie and Lymon (John David Washington and Ray Fisher) are driving, it’s right after the flashback sequence at the beginning of the film, and they’re driving to Pittsburgh. That was just such a beautiful and thematic way to introduce the film, letting the audience know that we’re kind of spanning lots of decades here musically. I think that was one of my favorite songs, and kind of, because its setting a tone going forward, in addition to the period songs that we we included as well, and of course, the amazing score by Alexandre Desplat, that you know, his score and his collaboration with Malcolm was another piece of the puzzle that was so hugely impactful to how the film plays.

Sarah Abraham: I loved the score by Alexandre Desplat. It’s very different than what I’m used to hearing from him, but I like hearing a composer challenge himself. Now, this next question I’m excited about. One of my favorite scenes in the movie was with Danielle Deadwyler at the piano at the end. I think she’s such a talent. I love her, and I love watching her in film. Could you talk about what it was like working with her, getting that performance, with playing the piano in that scene, calling on the ancestors, and why that was so powerful in the film?
Deva Anderson: I could speak to the musical side of it, and I completely agree with you. Her performance in the film is absolutely mind blowing. She is just an incredible talent. That scene is almost one of the audience favorites. It was kind of a tapestry of how it came to. So, in the beginning, there were certain basic tracks that we had to use just for her playback on set. And then, once Malcolm got what he wanted visually, and then also things that she would play on the piano, by the time we got into post production, when Malcolm was editing with his editor, he really realized that something else needed to be called out musically from that. So, we went back in the studios with a different pianist and recorded the piece that enhanced what was there anyway. It really became like a fierce life of its own after that, and that was also one of the things, like it had many different stages to become what that was. I think once we did that recording, right towards the end of post production, was when that scene really, really came to life and became what it was. It also melds with the score itself and just how everything is shot. There’s so much in music, too, of those types of things, so that in the final mix, it has to work well with sound design, and there’s so much in the film that is where sound design is kind of dancing with music in certain areas, which has to be really refined in the final mix.

Sarah Abraham: I really loved a lot about this film, but it was definitely a different way of seeing music incorporated into film and used as a storytelling element. It’s fitting because the piano is in the title and it’s such a central part of the story. Do you have anything specific that you did for this film that maybe is not expected or not known? I know you touched on the hidden role of music supervisors earlier, but do you have any specific stories about that?
Deva Anderson: With this film, there’s one scene in particular, and you know that I feel like because I’m also, like a huge music fan, but I am a complete research nerd too, on where things come from originally, which also completely is the whole threading of what the film is about, ironically, but the on camera performance of the song “Berta Berta” by all the gentlemen at the table. I was saying to someone earlier too, that when that scene plays in a theatrical audience, like people just stand up and cheer, it’s so impactful, and it’s so meaningful because there’s the whole story up until they start singing the song, and one of the pieces that I love, too is that piece of music, “Berta Berta.” What we discovered it was also in the original play, but what made up the actual musical element of the entirety was different copyrights and pieces of the lyrics were also lyrics that were written by August Wilson. So, you know, sometimes old spirituals or folk songs or, you know, public domain songs have one through line. But, this was almost it. It was just a beautiful quilt of lots of different pieces that came together, and I feel like that really came through in the performance too. That was one of my favorite pieces.

Sarah Abraham: It did. I saw it at home. I didn’t have the chance to see this in a theatrical setting, but I did rewind the “Berta Berta” scene. I don’t know if you’re supposed to do that on first viewing. We mentioned earlier that we both share an interest in music history, specifically the connection between African Americans and how so much of their contribution to American music has been impactful and still is to pop culture and just how we interact with art in the first place. Seeing those spiritual hymns performed live and also in a setting like this, in a film is important. I really appreciate seeing it, and it’s not talked about enough, in my opinion, the historical significance of it as well. So I love that whole scene, and I love that you shared that story. I think that was my last question that I had written down, but do you have anything else that you would like to share? Anything off the top of your mind?
Deva Anderson: Well, I guess, first of all, I really appreciate that you, you know, I mean, it’s kind of kismet. You have the same historical love of this too, and I do too that, but there’s something about this film that it touches people in different ways, even if the actual story itself doesn’t necessarily resonate, but on a musical level. You know, this is one of those things where sometimes people are really surprised when they watch it that there are certain types of films that you watch that, you know, stay with you. This is one of those films just having to do with music through time period that is just really, really special. I think it’s just going to have one of those long lives of pieces of film history. I’m just so grateful to have worked on it. In the years that I’ve been doing this, these are those prized ones that are just so joyful and a creative collaboration and community. What else do we need, you know, in our lives? So it’s fully satisfying. I hope people like yourself can continue to enjoy the film as much as we have.

Sarah Abraham: Well, thank you for that, and again, thank you for taking the time to talk to me about this. It was truly one of my favorites of the year, and I always love meeting people that share similar interest in me, with music and with history as well. So I enjoyed it. Thank you!
Deva Anderson: Thank you, Sarah. It’s a pleasure to talk to you, and thanks for taking the time.

The Piano Lesson is currently streaming on Netflix.