Moms Knew Best About "Great Debaters"
When in doubt, let moms sort it out!
That, says two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington, was the key to his accepting the lead role in "The Great Debaters."
It's a drama based on the true story of Melvin Tolson, a professor and the debate team coach at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas who, in 1935, inspired underdog students from the all-black school to challenge Harvard in the national debating championship.
The film was nominated for the Best Picture, Drama Golden Globe that "Atonement" just took home.
On The Early Show Tuesday, co-anchor Harry Smith told Washington he emerged from a recent screening of "The Great Debaters" with tears streaming down his face.
"I said, 'Stop the presses. If you don't see anything else, this is the one people need to see,' " Smith told Washington. It shows how Tolson "lights a fire" under the students, as Smith put it.
"I call it a sports story, you know -- they're going to win or -- " Washington remarked to Smith. "It's pretty formulaic, I guess you'd say. But these young kids (actors) are just amazing.
"One young kid, Denzel Whitaker, which is actually his name, no relation to me, or Forest Whitaker (who also stars in "The Great Debaters), and Jurnee Smollett and Nate Parker, I mean -- they deliver, in a way i haven't seen in a long time."
They didn't know about Jim Crowe era in which movie take place, Washington said, so, "To their credit, they did a lot of research, a ton of research. They came in prepared. I had them all write journals. I said I want you to study your history. They came in with 200-page books they wrote about who they were, who their character was, what went on in that time. They did their homework. None of us can know unless you've lived it. I don't know to the degree that my parents know. But they did their homework, and they delivered."
But Washington says it was a critical conversation between his mother and that of studio boss Harvey Weinstein to get the film made to begin with.
Washington explained that he didn't want to appear in the film, only direct it, and he and Weinstein were going back and forth over the terms, with Weinstein pushing Washington to go on front of the camera, as well.
Finally, Washington told Smith, "I said, 'Wwhat's your mother's phone number?' He said, 'What?' I said, 'Wwhat's your mother's phone number?' He said, 'What are you talking about?' I said, 'Obviously, you and I can't make a deal, so why don't I have my mother call your mother?' And that's what they did. The two of them got on the phone. And my mother called me back. And she sed, 'You'd better, you know -- ' and the deal was done. True story!"
Washington gave $1 million to Wiley College last month to re-establish and maintain the debate team for the next decade.
"The Great Debaters," from Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions, goes into wide release this weekend.
