Actor John David Washington, who was part of Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’, is all in praise for and believes the collaboration has helped him improve his own craft, reported PTI.
Washington, who is a former professional football player and popular for movies such as Spike Lee’s ‘BlackKklansman’ and ‘Monster’, plays the main lead in Nolan’s upcoming film.
Washington said, “Working with a hero of mine brought me great excitement at the prospect, and there was no telling what he had in mind for me. And so when I finally got to read the script, it is such an incredible, unique, original idea, it got me even more excited about how we’re going to do this—how we’re going to bring this to life.”
Also read: Christopher Nolan praises India’s ‘visual beauty’ ahead of Tenet’s release
He added, “And step-by-step we were doing it. Day by day, week by week, we were getting it done, and it was a great experience.”
According to the 36-year-old, Nolan is an “actor’s director” since he was quite receptive of the actor’s contributions. He said, “He exceeded my expectations. I can’t speak for everybody else, but in my experience, Chris is an actor’s director. He fully embraced and championed my performance and spontaneity, and my contributions, using my instincts and what I felt like I could bring to the table.”
Also read: Warner Bros India announces release date of Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ in India
Washington said that he has learnt a lot from Nolan throughout the process, which will come handy for him in the future. He said, “He never wanted things the same way. He would say to me sometimes—and it would blow my mind — ‘I’ll work off of you’. If you hear Christopher Nolan and (cinematographer) Hoyte Van Hoytema say, ‘No, no, no. You do it, and I’ll work off of you,’ that’s something you don’t expect, given their histories and seeing their catalogue of films.”
He added, “Seeing these legends, these people at the top of their game, wanted me to dictate certain things? It was incredible. They gave me great confidence because of moments like that. It gave me great joy and a rediscovery of my artistry and what I believe I can do now after something like this. I know so much more about the process of it now and I attribute that to Christopher Nolan.”
Washington said that ‘Tenet’ did not rely much on special effects unlike usual big-budget sci-fi movies. He said, “As an actor, when you can step into the space, everything feels alive and in play. And it has to be created that way.”
He added, “I mean, the leader has to create that environment for this to happen, and then, if you’ve done your research and you’re fully invested, it’s up to you to gather those clues, gather those discoveries and put them in the soup and make it something unimaginable, something that you can only create when you’re in those situations. And Chris provided that for us.”
The Warner Bros film also features Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh, Aaron Taylor Johnson and Clemence Poesy.
Washington heaped praise for the star-studded cast. He said, “It was a dream cast as well. I mean everybody was brilliant. It’s interesting cause everybody has their own style, right? So sometimes it can take time to adjust to people’s style and maybe the conditions weren’t ideal all the time. And having to work through some of these things, nobody complained, and it was seamless.”
He added, “I love the way Robert works. Sometimes we wouldn’t overly talk about what we were doing. We discovered things and let the elements dictate our attitude, our motivation at the time, and I think that worked great.”
