While attending school, he met social worker Bill Ward, who was a significant and positive influence in Fisher’s life. Pickett, Fisher was kicked out of the home and forced to return to social services.įor high school, Fisher attended George Junior Republic School, a specialized school for young men from disadvantaged circumstances located in western Pennsylvania. For many years, his foster father did not even acknowledge whether he knew Fisher's name. During his time with the Picketts, Fisher was beaten physically, sexually abused by a neighbor and family friend, and emotionally neglected. Twelve years of his childhood were spent with a foster family named the Picketts, a middle-aged couple whose children were already grown. As a result, Fisher grew up in several foster homes, without having known his parents. His mother named him for pianist Antoine “Fats” Domino, and his father was killed before he was born. Hard to believe Derek Luke is a newcomer easy to believe why Washington decided he was the right actor to play Antwone Fisher.Screenwriter and author Antwone Quenton Fisher was born on Augin a women’s prison outside of Cleveland, Ohio to seventeen-year-old Eva Mae Fisher and twenty-three-year-old Edward Elkins. But the relationship between the two men is handled by Washington, as the director, with close and caring attention. There is a sense of anticlimax when Davenport has his last heartfelt talk with Antwone, because the film has reached its emotional climax in Ohio and there is nowhere else we want it to take us. There are issues in their past, too, and in a sense Davenport and Fisher are in therapy together. Davenport and his wife, Berta ( Salli Richardson). She hardly says a word, as Antwone spills out his heart in an emotionally shattering speech.Īntwone's story is counterpointed with the story of Dr. It is hard to believe it is the same actress. Earlier this year, Davis appeared as the maid in " Far from Heaven" and as the space-station psychiatrist in "Solaris." Now this performance. Without detailing what happens, I will mention three striking performances from this part of the movie, by Vernee Watson-Johnson as Antwone's aunt, by Earl Billings as his uncle, and by Viola Davis as his mother. And that is where the preparation of the early scenes pays off in confrontations of extraordinary power.
At first Fisher resists these doctor's orders, but finally, with Cheryl's help, he flies back. He needs to return to Ohio and see if he can find family members. He is troubled, he even gets in another fight, but she sees that he has a good heart and she believes in him.ĭavenport argues with the young man that all of his troubles come down to a need to deal with his past. In a time when movie romances end in bed within a scene or two, their relationship is sweet and innocent. He is shy around her, asks Davenport for tips on dating, keeps it a secret that he is still a virgin. Antwone, who is constitutionally incapable of crime, considers that an abandonment, too.Īs Antwone's weekly sessions continue, he meets another young sailor, Cheryl Smolley ( Joy Bryant). Another blow came when his closest childhood friend was killed in a robbery. He will eventually tell Davenport that his father was murdered two months before he was born, that his mother was in prison at the time and abandoned him, and that he was raised in a cruel foster home. He awakens from his dream to the different reality of life on board an aircraft carrier. That is the case with every "true story." The film opens with a dream image that will resonate through the film: Antwone, as a child, is welcomed to a dinner table by all the members of his family, past and present. The film is based on truth but some characters and events have been dramatized, we are told at the end. The newcomer Derek Luke, cast in the crucial central role after dozens of more experienced actors had been auditioned, turned out to be a friend of Antwone's he didn't tell that to the filmmakers because he thought it would hurt his chances. Denzel Washington was so impressed he chose it for his directorial debut. Fisher was a security guard at the Sony studio in Hollywood when his screenplay came to the attention of the producers. The story behind the film is extraordinary. Antwone Fisher has a confrontation with his past, and a speech to the mother who abandoned him, and a reunion with his family, that create great, heartbreaking, joyous moments. I have noticed that when I am deeply affected emotionally, it is not by sadness so much as by goodness. I do not cry easily at the movies years can go past without tears.