Antwone Fisher
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Denzel Washington
Derek Luke
Malcolm David Kelley
Cory Hodges
Denzel Washington
Joy Bryant
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Twenty-four-year-old Antwone Fisher, stationed at the Naval base in Coronado, California, often loses his temper and fights with his fellow seamen. After his latest brawl, the African-American Antwone defends himself by stating that his opponent made a racial slur, but is still sentenced to reduced pay and a demotion, and is also ordered to be evaluated at the Naval psychiatric facility. Antwone reluctantly sees psychiatrist Commander Jerome Davenport, who is bemused by the dichotomy between Antwone's belligerence and shyness. Intrigued by Antwone's statement that he is "from under a rock," Davenport orders him to return the following week. Taking advantage of his liberty from the ship, Antwone goes to the base exchange to see Cheryl Smolley, a fellow Naval recruit with whom he is smitten. Despite her own shyness, Cheryl attempts to tease Antwone into a conversation, but the tongue-tied young man leaves quickly. Two weeks later, Davenport has Antwone forcibly brought to his office, as he had not reported for their meeting. Davenport explains to the angry seaman that he has only three sessions in which to evaluate him and make a recommendation to his commanding officer, who wants Antwone dismissed from the Navy. Declaring that there is nothing wrong with him, Antwone refuses to talk, and so Davenport orders him to attend weekly sessions until he does. For several weeks, Antwone sits in silence while Davenport catches up on his paperwork. Finally, Antwone begins to speak, soon revealing that he never knew his father, who was murdered two months before he was born. His mother was in prison when he was born, and Antwone was put in an orphanage for two years. Eventually, Antwone was placed in the Cleveland foster home of Reverend and Mrs. Tate, an older African-American couple who also fostered young Dwight and Keith, who was favored because he was half white. Antwone describes the incessant physical and emotional abuse heaped upon the children by Mrs. Tate, who called them "nigger" so often that they could tell which child she was calling by how she said the word. Antwone cannot control the pain in his voice upon describing how Mrs. Tate bragged about beating him unconscious when he was eight years old, and Davenport begins to sympathize with his patient. During their next session, Antwone tells Davenport about his best friend Jesse, a devil-may-care boy whom Mrs. Tate detested. One day, when Jesse came to call for Antwone, Mrs. Tate began to berate Antwone, but the by then teenaged boy, unable to endure her tyranny, grabbed the shoe with which she was beating him, and she threw him out. Hoping to help Antwone understand the Tates's ambiguous feelings about their own race, Davenport gives him a book about slavery, explaining how generations of African-American slaves passed on to their children the poor treatment they had received from their masters. Despite his initial skepticism, Antwone finds himself responding to Davenport's gentle questioning and so is distraught at the end of their third session, when Davenport states that he can no longer see him, although he will recommend that Antwone be allowed to remain in the Navy. Overwhelmed by the release of feelings he had kept locked inside, Antwone begins fighting again, and one day, shows up at Davenport's office, where he yells at the waiting patients. Drawn to helping Antwone, Davenport offers to see him on his own time, and they begin their sessions again. Antwone is amazed one afternoon when Cheryl asks him out, and after receiving encouragement from Davenport, has a successful first date with her. Thrilled that Cheryl kissed him, Antwone dashes to Davenport's house to tell him, and the commander's wife Berta, with whom Davenport has a strained relationship, caustically tells her husband not to cure the young man of his enthusiasm. All goes well for Antwone until his ship makes a routine tour of Mexico, where one night, he and his buddies visit a nightclub. There, Antwone's frequent tormentor, Grayson, taunts him for not wanting to dance, implying that he is either a virgin or a homosexual. After the ensuing brawl, Antwone is returned to Coronado, where Davenport questions him in the brig. Antwone confides that he is a virgin, then reveals that as a young child, he was repeatedly sexually molested by Nadine, a predatory older girl also staying with the Tates. Later, Antwone stops by the Davenport home to see the commander and charms Berta with his honesty and politeness. Berta insists that Antwone attend their Thanksgiving dinner, at which Antwone experiences his first family holiday. In gratitude Antwone gives Davenport a moving poem, "Who Will Cry for the Little Boy?", and a deeply touched Berta realizes how much Antwone means to her husband. Soon after, however, Davenport is forced to tell Antwone that it is time for him to move on, as he must now take charge of his recovery himself. An infuriated Antwone lashes out, yelling that everyone in his life has abandoned him, even Jesse, and reveals to Davenport that rather than simply losing touch with Jesse, as he had said earlier, he was an innocent bystander when Jesse was shot while robbing a convenience store. After finally being able to admit his anger toward Jesse, Antwone realizes that Davenport is also right about his need to find his real family. Asking Cheryl to accompany him, Antwone returns to Cleveland, but receives little help from social services. Cheryl then encourages Antwone to question Mrs. Tate. Antwone goes to the Tate home, where he castigates Nadine and Mrs. Tate for their abuse, then defiantly declares that he is still standing strong. After Mrs. Tate tells Antwone that his father's name was Edward Elkins, Antwone and Cheryl begin calling all the Elkinses in the Cleveland phone book. Late that night, a confused Annette Elkins receives a call from Antwone, and after he relates his story, tearfully tells him that she may be his "auntie." The next morning, Antwone and Cheryl go to Annette's home, and there meet her, his uncle James and another uncle, none of whom knew of his existence. James realizes that Antwone's mother is Eva Mae Fisher, the sister of a friend, and takes him to meet her. Antwone is dismayed by his mother's tenement home, while she is too overwhelmed by his sudden appearance to speak. Antwone tells her that he is a good man, of many accomplishments, and after kissing her on the cheek, leaves with forgiveness in his heart. Upon his arrival back at the Elkins home, Antwone is stunned to be proudly welcomed by his many relatives, who have prepared a feast for him. When he returns to Coronado, Antwone cheerfully informs Davenport that he is not a virgin any longer, and tells him that he was right about seeking out his family. In turn, Davenport relates that when he and his wife discovered they could not have children, he obtained the best psychiatric help for Berta, but he shut down emotionally. It was not until Antwone entered his life that Davenport came alive again, and the commander thanks Antwone, his surrogate son, for helping him become a better doctor and husband.
Director
Denzel Washington
Cast
Derek Luke
Malcolm David Kelley
Cory Hodges
Denzel Washington
Joy Bryant
Salli Richardson
Leonard Earl Howze
Kenté Scott
Kevin Connolly
Rainoldo Gooding
Novella Nelson
Stephen Snedden
Leo Nepomuceno
Sung Kang
Cordell Stokes
Ellis E. Williams
Timothy Reddick
Yolonda Ross
De'angelo K. Wilson
Jascha Washington
Vernée Watson Johnson
Viola Davis
Earl Billings
Margaret Ford-taylor
Bob Banks
Jada S. Louie
Rebecca Morris
Brandon Biggins
Brandon Lewis
Eddie Baccus
David Fowler
Sean'e La'dae
Linda Cevallos
O. L. Duke
Charlie Robinson
Michelle Davison
Fran Dorsey
Ruth Stehle
John Pittman Jr.
Lissy Gulick
Edward C. Reynolds Iii
André Patton
Rita Pearson
Janaya Reynolds
Na'tasha Marie Evans
Doug Jewell
Lynn E. Charles
Jason Dixon
Mary Bradley Marable
Teresa Hoefke
Angela Gillespie-winborn
Kim Johnson
James Brolin
Jenifer Lewis
Crew
Stuart M. Abramson
Dean L. Alexander
Molly Allen
Joan Andrews
Kim Andrews
Simon Andrieux
Mario A. Arce
James Babineaux
Sidney R. Baldwin
Yvonne Bastidos
David Batancourt
Jeff Baxter
Billy Beaird
Anna Behlmer
William Biggerstaff
Carolyn Bishop
Todd Black
Will Blount
Jim Bolt
Troy Borisy
Kevin P. Boyd
William Branch
Bill Brennan
Martin Bresin
Adrienne Brown
John A. Brubaker
Conrad Buff
John S. Bukala
Gary Burritt
Willie Burton
James K. Butler
Keith Butler
Matt Cahill
Jennifer Calbi
Joe Cassano
Arnold Castaneda
Manuel Castillo
Monica Castro
Lynn Champagne
Larry M. Cherry
Ann S. Christman
Ron Clarke
Tim Clément
Kenneth Clemmons
George Clinton Jr.
Nelson Coates
Melissa "stanley" Cohen
Bootsy Collins
Xiomara Comrie
Donald Paul Cooke
Chris Crago
James W. Crawford Jr.
William Keily Cronin
Victor Daniel
Jeff Danna
Mychael Danna
Mark Davies
Karen Davis
Sharen Davis
Sandy De Crescent
C. Don Debaun
Damon Degrignon
Laura J. Derosa
Thomas Diehl
Lisa D. Disanto
Nicholas Dodd
Jim Dresser
Warren Drummond
Beth Dubber
Sean Duckworth
Michael Dudiak
Don Duffield Iii
Mark Duggan
Traci Easley-williams
David J. Easterling
Linda Edminson
Matthew D. Egan
Melissa Elbaum
James D. Emory
Jack English
Erik A. Erichsen
Russ Faust
Marvin Felton
Dawn Fintor
Antwone Fisher
Antwone Fisher
Jeff Fisher
Randy Fletcher
Greg Flores
Troy Flores
Amrita-diane Ford
Mindy Frank
Marquis Frost
Carl Fullerton
Artis I. Gaines
Carrie Black Gallison
Brenda Garcia
Bruno Garcia
Jack Gardener
Will Gatlin
David Gerson
Sheila Goldfarb
David Goldstein
Hope Goodwin
Angelique Graham-bones
Seth Greenwald
Cyrillynn P. Grospe
Kevin Gustavson
Kip Gynn
Johnny Haddad
Brad Haehnel
Randa Haines
Cdr. Paul Hammer
Tom Hardisty
Donna R. Harrison
Robert "sarge" Hepburn
John Hinkle
David Holmes
Paul Houle
Bill K. Hoyt
Heather Hudson
Iris Huezo
Steven Inez
Paul Intson
Paul Intson
Moses D. Isreal Jr.
Gregory Jacobs
Pierre Luc Jamain
Levi James
Karl Jefferson
Vincent Jogerst
Angela Johnson
Tanya Johnson
Nasir Jones
Thomas Kaschade
Joseph C. Kelley
Fay Kelly
Carole Ann Kenneally
Matthew C. Kime
Rebecca Kirkland
Dennis G. Knight
Lynn Kramer
David Kulczycki
Daniel Kupresan
Steven R. Kutcher
Gary Lamantia
Brian Lawson
David S. Lazan
Rod Ledta
Marc Leeger
Donald Leigl
Alex Lerner
Al Lewis
Marvin E. Lewis
Murshel C. Lewis
Pauletta Lewis-irwin
Deborah Lily
Marylou Lim
Julie Ann Lindstrom
Rick Linkowski
Brandon Linville
Joseph Lobato
Andrew Lockington
David Lucarelli
Tricia Lynch
Blair Mackay
James Maclin
Kathy Madison
Matt Marrin
Billy Martin
Ken Mccahan
Cat'ania Mccoy-howze
Lashawn Mccrary
Anne Mcculley
George Mcdougall
Matt Mcguire
Richard N. Mcguire
Caitlin Mckenna
Frank Mckeon
Dennis Mcneill
Pete E. Meda
Barbara Mesney
Toya Milawan Profit
Beverly L. Mink
James Mize
Gail Monian
William Moore
Glenn Moran
Annette Moreno
Doug Moreno
Mildred Iatrou Morgan
Thomas S. Morris
Walter Morrison Jr.
Sal Muhammed
Greg Musselman
Rick Myers
Christopher Naefke
Tony Nagy
Jason Newton
Jon Nicholson
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working titles of this film were The Antwone Fisher Story and Finding Fish. The picture was also referred to as The Untitled Antwone Fisher Project or the The Untitled Antwone Fisher Story when production first began. The film's closing credits begin with a written dedication from screenwriter Antwone Fisher: "In memory of my Father, Edward Elkins, whom I never had the pleasure and the honor to know." The end credits also contain the following written disclaimer: "Antwone Fisher's screenplay was inspired by his life. Some of the characters and events depicted in this film are fictional."
As depicted in the film, Antwone Fisher was born in 1959 in Cleveland, two months after his father was murdered. [In the film, the character of "Antwone" is born in 1976.] Fisher's mother, incarcerated at the time of his birth, never claimed him from the orphanage in which he remained for the next two years before being placed into an abusive foster home. After being turned out of his foster home, Fisher spent two years in a boys's reform school, then was homeless before joining the Navy. Fisher served an eleven-year stint in the Navy before spending three years as a correctional officer. It was while he was then employed as a security guard at Sony Pictures that he sought out and found his real family.
Inspired by the enthusiastic reaction to his story that he received from several Sony executives, who learned about it because he had to ask for special permission for vacation time to visit his family, Fisher decided to write a screenplay about his life. According to studio publicity and numerous articles, in 1993, Fisher began taking a screenwriting class taught by Chris Smith. Smith, a screenwriter who would eventually make his debut as a producer with Antwone Fisher, introduced Fisher to his former college roommate, Sony producer Todd Black. Impressed by Fisher's story, Black and his producing partner, Randa Haines, gave Fisher enough money to quit his security guard job and bought him a computer on which to write his screenplay. After working closely with Black for approximately a year, Fisher was able to sell his screenplay to Twentieth Century Fox in August 1994. Fisher later used his screenplay as the basis for an autobiographical book, published in 2001 as Finding Fish: A Memoir. The poem recited by "Antwone" in the film, "Who Will Cry for the Little Boy?," was the title poem in Fisher's collection of poetry published in December 2002.
According to a August 23, 1995 Daily Variety article, Haines was considering directing the project at that time, and one of the co-producers was to be Jason Blumenthal, a vice-president at Haines/Black Productions. A November 24, 1998 Hollywood Reporter "films in preparation" notice also included Blumenthal as a co-producer and listed one of the production companies as Black & Blu Entertainment, which was run by Blumenthal and Black. Blumenthal is not credited onscreen, however.
In September 1996, Variety announced that Denzel Washington was in talks to direct the picture but not star in it, with Will Smith being considered for the lead role of Antwone. Several articles about the making of the picture note that Black first approached Washington, who made his feature-film directorial debut with Antwone Fisher, solely about playing "Jerome Davenport." Washington instead decided that he wanted to direct the project, and it was not until later that he agreed to play the part of Davenport, a fictional composite of several people who helped Fisher. According to a January 2003 Premiere article, Washington "auditioned hundreds of young men around the country" for the part of Antwone, and a 20-27 December 2002 Entertainment Weekly article notes that in addition to Smith, actors Cuba Gooding, Jr., Mekhi Phifer and Ja Rule were also interested in the role. The article also notes that while Fisher was working at the Sony lot, he made the acquaintance of a young actor, Derek Luke, who worked at the gift shop on the lot. Luke, who had appeared in only two television shows and a bit part in the Spike Lee movie Clockers, auditioned for the role of Antwone several times and before being cast in August 2001. Joy Bryant, who plays "Cheryl Smolley," also played her first major role in a feature film in Antwone Fisher.
In the ending onscreen credits, the filmmakers thank the Department of Defense and U.S. Navy, along with a number of specific Naval officers and ships, for their cooperation in the picture's production. In studio publicity and television interviews, Washington credits the Navy's extensive cooperation with helping him to produce the film on a modest budget of $13 million. Several Naval bases and areas in San Diego, CA were used as location sites, and the main ship used during production was the USS Belleau Wood. Studio publicity reported that in order to "maintain an air of authenticity, nearly all the [N]avy extras that are seen in the film were actually off-duty officers from the bases where the film was shot." Portions of the picture were also shot in Cleveland, OH, in the real neighborhoods where Fisher grew up, and many members of the community were hired as extras or participated in the production in other ways.
Antwone Fisher was selected as one of AFI's top ten films of 2002, and was nominated for an Image Award as Outstanding Motion Picture. Luke received an Independent Spirit Award as Best Male Lead, and his performance was recognized as the Best Breakthrough Performance of an Actor by the National Board of Review.
Miscellaneous Notes
Co-winner of the 2002 award for Best Director (Denzel Washington), shared with Sam Mendes ("Road To Perdition") and Spike Jonze ("Adaptation") by the Washington D.C. Film Critics.
Nominated for the 2002 award for Best Original Screenplay by the Writer's Guild of America (WGA).
Voted one of the 10 best films of 2002 by the American Film Institute (AFI).
Winner of the 2002 award for Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actor (Derek Luke) from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.
Limited Release in United States December 20, 2002
Released in United States November 2002
Released in United States on Video May 20, 2003
Released in United States September 2002
Released in United States Winter December 19, 2002
Wide Release in United States January 1, 2003
Shown at Toronto International Film Festival (Gala) September 5-14, 2002.
Feature acting debut for Derek Luke.
Feature directorial debut for actor Denzel Washington.
Feature screenwriting debut for Antwone Quenton Fisher. Before turning his story into a movie, Mr. Fisher wrote a memoir, "Finding Fish," which was published in 2001.
Wide Release in United States January 1, 2003
Released in United States on Video May 20, 2003
Released in United States September 2002 (Shown at Toronto International Film Festival (Gala) September 5-14, 2002.)
Released in United States November 2002 (Shown at AFI/Los Angeles International Film Festival (Gala) November 7-17, 2002.)
Released in United States Winter December 19, 2002
Limited Release in United States December 20, 2002
