Isaiah Washington talks Blue CapriceBy Wilson Morales
September 12, 2013
Coming out this week is the D.C. Sniper story Blue Caprice, starring Isaiah Washington and Tequan Richmond.
Directed by Alexandre Moors with a screenplay by R.F.I. Porto, Blue Caprice also features Joey Lauren Adams, Tim Blake Nelson, Cassandra Freemanand Leo Fitzpatrick.
The film is a haunting psychological thriller about an abandoned boy (Richmond) lured to America into the shadows of a dangerous father figure (Washington). Inspired by true events, the film investigates the notorious and horrific Beltway sniper attacks from the point of view of the two killers, whose distorted father-son relationship facilitated their long and bloody journey across America.
Blue Caprice is based on the story of the real-life Beltway sniper attacks of 2002, orchestrated by John Allen Muhammad, and Lee Boyd Malvo.
For Washington, this has been an amazing year for the Houston native. While he’s best known for his role as Dr. Preston Burke on the ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy during the first three seasons, he had also appeared in four of Spike Lee’s films, including Clockers and Get on the Bus. Earlier this year, he starred in The Undershepherd and will be co-starring in the upcoming TV series, The 100.
In speaking with Blackfilm.com, Washington talks about getting the role and working with Alexandre Moors.
With The Undershepherd, They Die By Dawn, this film and an upcoming TV series, this has been a breakout year for you of sorts. What was the attraction to the role in ‘Blue Caprice’?
Isaiah Washington: I got this email from the producer Isen Robbins on Facebook. Based on what he had wrote me, if I could I respectfully call him back and hear him out, but my initial instinct was that maybe they had the wrong guy. But until I was sent a letter, by email later by Isen, that Alexandre [Moors] had written to me, and it was, by that point, I was intrigued by not only his approach but his heart. That prompted me to accept a phone call, a meeting and speak with him further about how he wanted to approach this story. After speaking with him for about I think two hours, as I sat there on the phone, I was convinced that although I had great anxiety about the actual events and concerns about the action of John Allen Muhammed, I was just really, really impressed with Alexandre’s vision. He wanted to tell this father/son story, but knowing that we were walking into a various amount of landmines that could easily explode on us if we didn’t get certain things in tone, in storytelling right and stay true to the facts. I had to go his website and that really sealed the deal for me, because once I saw his work visually, particularly the video he did on ‘Runaway’ with Kanye West and Selita Ebanks, I was sold. I said, ‘This guy is an extraordinary talent and I just want to be there on the ground floor with him, to say that I worked with him,’ and that was one deciding factor. We didn’t have a script at that time, but just after seeing his different kind of work on his website and looking at his work, I was just intrigued. This man is an incredible talent, and, I don’t think I was wrong.
Once you got the role, how did you much know about this individual and what did you do to get into character?
Washington: This was an opportunity to be a part of an extraordinarily restrained script, very sparse in terms of dialogue. I don’t know if you’ve seen the film. This was an exercise of trust and it led to in a way a new experience. I completely walked into this without the traditional weeks and weeks of research, preparation, and the thing that helped you with that was Alexandre. He gave me two books to read. ‘Scared Silent’ by Mildred Muhammad and ‘Notes From the Underground’ written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. He said he wanted me to focus on the voice of the wife of John Allen Muhammad and focus on the character, the lead character in ‘Notes from the Underground.’ That was the extent of my research. You have to keep in my mind that by the time he called me, they had been looking for me for several months. So they were ready to go. So I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare, so to speak, and that intrigued me too, because I was completely stepping out of my comfort zone. I had to rely completely on Alexandre’s, his vision, his direction and his care as a human being to get through this process, which was extremely fast, extremely difficult. We shot very, very complicated scenes in a very short amount of time with little dialogue. It was amazing, I mean, the experience, and now looking back at all of it, it was completely a labor of love.
Most of your scenes are with Tequan Richmond. How was working with him in that short amount of time, creating that bond between the characters?
Washington: Again, we started off with a very, very modest budget. Tequan and I shared the same trailer which was something that was different for both of us, but again, it was all part for the course. We didn’t resist it. We trusted Alexandre implicitly, although it became very difficult. We realized that same trailer was also the trailer for the guest actors. We all shared that one trailer, and that trailer was also for hair and makeup and also for wardrobe and the production team. So there was one big, happy family in this one trailer. So we didn’t really have any time to get away from each other except for when we returned home to our hotel rooms to go to sleep. I mean, all of us, the entire team was working as one symbiotic force to get through this project. That’s the first time that I’ve ever worked in an extremely independent spirit on one level, but as you can see, I think the film speaks of everyone’s effort. No one complained about anything, although we were asked to do things that most of us hadn’t experienced before. I think that’s what made the whole thing special.
What would you like people to understand when they walk away after seeing this film?
Washington: I don’t want anyone to understand anything. That would be me trying to inform the general public on a piece of art. So I’m curious to hear and to feel and to read what the people have to say. Everyone is different. You’re looking at a piece of art, and I look now at everyone’s work and that kind of existing. Now I’m just curious to see if this work of art connected to the impossible, and that is to merge art with commerce. Only the people and you guys that’ will review it can determine whether or not it’s going to achieve that goal. That’s what I want, that a piece of art, an art film can actually compete with any other commercial film at the box office. That’s what I’m looking for, or not, but in terms of projecting what I want the people to feel or think about the film, it’s impossible for me to answer that question and I wouldn’t want to.
After having being in this business for some time, what did you learn from Alexandre that you haven’t learned from other directors?
Washington: His passion was complete and was clear. When he didn’t get what he wanted, or thought he wanted…you know, we worked in a way, and I still use that experience, even today now, working with him two years ago, I may not know completely what it is, but whatever we’re doing and we look at it kind of like engineering or in a laboratory, we know what it’s not. We know that’s not working, and so let’s go again to try and reach this eureka moment, and that’s what I saw with Alexandre, that if he couldn’t the camera person, no matter how experienced that person was, he had no problem taking that camera himself and shooting it. He did that several times. The only person that I can think of that I’ve worked with that does that, that are impressive artists, some directors, but James Cameron and Steven Soderbergh. At that point, I was like, ‘Wow. Wow. This guy is in full control of his instrument.’ That was the thing that secured me as an actor and doing so well. In fact, I had only been shooting with him for three weeks, and I’m talking to his wife, in between breaks or whatever, between scenes, and his wife let me know, ‘Oh, thank you so much for doing this film.’ I said, ‘I’m honored. This guy is amazing.’ She said, ‘Yeah, and he’s so proud to have you here. He’s been wanting to work with you since “Clockers,” and he’s so happy to have you here on his first film.’ I said, ‘What?’ I asked Alexandre and said need to talk. He said, ‘What’s going on?’ I said, ‘What is this I’m hearing? This is Alexandre’s first film?’ I said, ‘That’s impossible.’ He said, ‘Oh, yes, yes, yes. I was going to talk to you about that.’ I had no idea. This guy was working like a trooper, like an expert, man. I was blown away.
