Kerry Washington on Why Netflix’s ‘American Son’ Never Shows

Those who had the privilege of seeing Kerry Washington star in “American Son” on Broadway can relaxation simple — or perhaps uneasy, really — understanding that the story stays precisely the identical in Netflix’s movie adaptation of the play. With the exception of some fast flashbacks and minimize away pictures, none of which embrace dialogue, the unique work of Christopher Demos-Brown has been left intact in its transition to the display screen.

And a kind of pivotal items of the “American Son” puzzle that continues to be unchanged is the very fact the viewers by no means really will get to see Jamal — the lacking half-Black, half-White teenage son of Kendra Ellis-Connor (Washington) — for themselves.

“It was important to not have a visual of Jamal,” Washington, who additionally government produced the movie, informed TheWrap. “I had the experience of talking to a friend of mine, who is Asian-American, who came to see the play and he said in his mind — it wasn’t conscious until afterward — but in his mind, Jamal was an Asian-Black kid. He looked like that because, while watching the play, he felt like Jamal belonged to him. I have another friend, interestingly, who is Latino and came to see the play, and in his mind, Jamal was half-White and half-Latino. Because, again, he felt like Jamal belonged to him. And it’s interesting that each of them– one of them took the position of privilege and the other didn’t. So I think that that’s so interesting in terms of how we enter the story.”

Also Read: ‘American Son’ Trailer: Kerry Washington Calls Out Racial Injustice in Search for Her Missing Son (Video)

This tells Washington that “there is room for anybody to enter the story and for Jamal to belong to you.” And that is necessary to her, as a result of it signifies that the play “operates in two ways.”

“It allows people, African-American people, to see our selves, to have our experience mirrored and highlighted and affirmed, acknowledged, honored in a way,” the “Scandal” alum mentioned. “And it allows other people to really be able to step into the challenges of raising Black children, with real empathy and personal investment. So if we show Jamal, it allows somebody, somewhere to say, ‘Not my kid.’ And I think it’s really important that when you watch the film, you feel like Jamal could be yours.”

Written by Demos-Brown and directed by Kenny Leon, “American Son” tells the story of Kendra, the mom of lacking teenage boy Jamal, as she struggles to place the items collectively in a South Florida police station. The streaming service’s adaptation of the play additionally contains authentic Broadway forged members Steven Pasquale, Jeremy Jordan and Eugene Lee, all reprising their roles, for a narrative that “presents four distinct viewpoints, while also navigating the unique dynamic of an interracial couple trying to raise a mixed-race son.”

Also Read: Netflix Rivals HBO Max, Disney+ and Apple TV+ All Plan to Kick Our Binge-Watching Habit

In phrases of what did change between the play model and the movie was “a little bit of blocking” — because of the truth there have been now 4 partitions to work with, not two — and the addition of these flashback pictures we famous earlier than.

“We wanted to add these windows into memory that you’ll see in the film,” Washington mentioned. “We knew we wanted to do that, but we weren’t sure how many of them we could get away with and how they would land and would they take people out of the story. There were those kinds of concerns. We didn’t want to change any of the words, because in theater it’s really about the language and we wanted to stick with the words, we wanted to honor the words. But we did want to take some visual liberties.”

“And I wouldn’t say I was worried, but I was curious. I wanted to shoot them all, but I wasn’t sure how much of it would feel right in the edit,” she continued. “But I believe they work actually superbly. It simply contextualizes these…