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In ‘The Piano Lesson,’ John David Washington Faces His Fears

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In ‘The Piano Lesson,’ John David Washington Faces His Fears


The Piano Lesson stars Denzel Washington’s son John David and is directed by his other son, Malcolm. But the film is no mere adventure in nepotism. John David, playing the same role in this adaptation as he did in a recent Broadway revival of August Wilson’s play, is a voluble storm in the film, joining his father as another sharp interpreter of Wilson’s kinetic poetry.

Vanity Fair’s Little Gold Men podcast recently caught up with John David on his whirlwind press tour for the film, sitting down with the actor for a special live event at New York City’s Perelman Performing Arts Center—a recently opened multipurpose event space located right next door to VF’s One World Trade Center offices in Manhattan’s financial district. Washington and LGM were there as part of PAC’s Icons of Culture Festival, an inaugural event celebrating influential artists of all disciplines.

John David WashingtonPhoto by Peter Cooper.

John David is indeed a disciplined artist, still in the process of honing his craft as part of a remarkable professional second act. He began his working life as a pro footballer, playing the game in Europe and in the UFL, the former minor league. Though his acting career already has some very bright highlights, he says that doing The Piano Lesson on the Broadway stage felt like a real make-or-break moment.

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“That’s what the play served for me,” he tells LGM. “I can go toe-to-toe with my fears, because this is the scariest it’s ever going to get—being onstage, spitting August Wilson’s words to a bunch of people that came to pay their good money to see if you’re any good. And I felt like my career would be over, and I’m not being hyperbolic, or I’m not being dramatic. I was like, If this doesn’t work, I’m going to have to look for another line of work.”

Image may contain John David Washington Electrical Device Microphone Adult Person Accessories Glasses and Couch

David Canfield, Richard Lawson, and John David WashingtonPhoto by Peter Cooper.

It all panned out in the end, leading to much of the cast signing on to do the film version of the production—this time directed by John David’s kid brother. But that family connection didn’t mean the actor took the project any less seriously. “I was ready to run through a brick wall for my director,” he says of his commitment to the piece, which was well matched by his sibling’s. “What I learned about my brother during that experience was how in control he was, how he was really born to do this.”

Judging by the film, multiple scions of the Washington family are to the manner born—yet all remain refreshingly humble despite their rocket ship success and, of course, hereditary legacy. That is an exceedingly rare quality these days.

You can listen to the entirety of LGM’s conversation with John David Washington above, or wherever you listen to podcasts.



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Washington

Plane crash near Washington DC: what we know on day 2

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Plane crash near Washington DC: what we know on day 2


  • Investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from American Eagle flight 5342, an American Airlines flight operated by PSA, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced late on Thursday. The recorders are now at the NTSB’s labs for evaluation. Board member Todd Inman said officials aimed to release a preliminary report into the incident within 30 days.

  • At least 27 bodies have been recovered from the plane and one from the Black Hawk helicopter which crashed into the Potomac River. The Bombardier CRJ-700 jet broke into three parts and was in waist-deep water in the Potomac. More than 300 emergency workers, including divers, weathered high winds and packed ice to retrieve pieces of the plane and bodies.

  • As many as 14 skaters and coaches, including two 16-year-olds and a married pair of world champions, were onboard the American Airlines plane. The Skating Club of Boston said Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, both aged 16, were on the plane. The club also said the Russian-born ice skating coaches and former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who were husband and wife, were onboard. Other victims included ice-skating coach Alexandr Kirsanov, and two of his young students Angela Yang and Sean Kay.

  • Two Chinese citizens were also on the plane, state media reported citing the Chinese embassy. Senator Maria Cantwell said that the dead on the plane also included citizens from Russia, the Philippines and Germany.

  • The pilot and first officer on the American Airlines flight were named as Jonathan Campos and Sam Lilley in media reports. Campos was 34 and Lilley 28, it was reported.

  • President Donald Trump has been strongly criticised by Democrats after suggesting that the previous administration’s diversity policies were responsible for the crash. In a press conference, Trump told reporters, “We had the highest standard [of air traffic controllers in his first administration] that you could have, and then they changed it back – that was Biden,” Trump said, adding that he believed the changes were made as part of diversity programs that his administration was vowed to repeal.

  • Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader, said Trump had used the collision to “peddle lies, conspiracy theories, and attack people of color and women without any basis whatsoever”. He continued: “Have you no decency? Have you no respect for the families whose lives have been turned upside down?”

  • Journalists also highlighted another exchange between the president and journalists. Trump responded to a question about whether he was going to visit the scene of the plane crash by saying: “What’s the site? The water? You want me to go swimming?”

  • Trump later signed another executive order that officials said would stop “woke policies” in federal aviation. Trump had already signed an executive order ending diversity initiatives at the Federal Aviation Administration last week.

  • Conflicting reports have emerged about whether staffing levels at Ronald Reagan national airport were “not normal”. According to an initial Federal Aviation Administration report, obtained by the New York Times, the Associated Press and others, staffing levels were “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic”. According to the report, one air traffic controller was responsible for coordinating helicopter traffic and arriving and departing planes when the collision happened, the Associated Press reported, and that configuration was described as “not normal”.

  • But a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press that staffing at the air traffic control tower on Wednesday night was, in fact, at a normal level. The positions are regularly combined when controllers need to step away from the console for breaks or are in the process of a shift change, or air traffic is slow, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures.

  • Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, said the Pentagon had launched an investigation. He added that the army helicopter crew involved in the collision was “fairly experienced”. Describing the flight as an “annual proficiency training flight”, Hegseth said: “They did have night vision goggles.”

  • Both the helicopter and the passenger plane had been flying in a “standard flight pattern” on a clear night before the crash, transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, said. He added that it was not uncommon for military aircraft to be seen in the skies over the nation’s capital, including near Reagan National, which is located in Arlington, Virginia.

  • The American Airlines CEO, Robert Isom, said: “At this time we don’t know why the military aircraft came into the path of the PSA aircraft.” He urged friends and family of those affected to call 1-800-679-8215, which is the helpline the airline has set up.

  • A day before Wednesday night’s midair collision near Reagan airport, a different jet there had to abort its landing and make a second approach after a helicopter appeared near its flight path, the Washington Post reported.

  • The US army saw an increase in very serious aviation incidents during the last fiscal year, with 15 flight and two ground incidents that resulted in deaths of service members, destruction of aircraft, or more than $2.5m in damage to the airframe, the Associated Press reported.

    This article was amended on 31 January 2025. The CEO of American Airlines is Robert Isom, not “Eisen” as an earlier version said.



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    Leaderless FAA begins investigation of Washington plane crash

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    Leaderless FAA begins investigation of Washington plane crash


    Questions swirled in Washington on Thursday as the Federal Aviation Administration began its investigation of the Reagan airport crash without a permanent leader – its former chief resigned 10 days ago, after Elon Musk, the SpaceX CEO and close adviser to Donald Trump, called for him to quit.

    Michael Whitaker, a 30-year aviation industry veteran, was unanimously confirmed as FAA administrator by the Senate in October 2023. He resigned last Monday, the day Trump was inaugurated as president.

    On Wednesday night, a military Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet. On Thursday, as bodies were removed from the Potomac River, officials said all 67 people onboard the two aircraft were dead.

    When Trump’s new secretary of transportation, Sean Duffy, was asked, “Is there an acting FAA director?” he walked away from reporters.

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    Trump named Chris Rocheleau, who had a long career with the FAA after joining it in 1996, as acting FAA administrator until a permanent choice is confirmed by the Senate.

    The National Business Aviation Association, which Rocheleau led before returning to the FAA, hailed “an outstanding leader who will be good for the FAA, good for aviation and good for the country, especially at this challenging time”.

    Rocheleau was reported to be back at the FAA last week. But according to Reuters, “the FAA for 10 days has declined to say who was running the agency on an acting basis.”

    On Thursday, Musk’s clashes with the FAA and Whitaker were back in the headlines.

    Musk’s anger grew from commercial interests including competition with Boeing for government contracts. In 2022, the FAA fined Starlink, a SpaceX subsidiary, for violations of safety protocol. Musk also said the agency needed “radical reform” and complained that it was “harassing SpaceX”.

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    In September 2024, Whitaker proposed fines of more than $600,000 for SpaceX, over alleged violations of its government license in two rocket launches.

    Musk, the world’s richest person, worth more than $400bn, said: “He needs to resign.”

    Whitaker might have agreed with Musk about the need for FAA reform, as he confronted challenges including run-down facilities and staff shortages contributing to a morale crisis among air traffic controllers.

    But in December, after Trump defeated Joe Biden, Whitaker said he would quit.

    He told staff: “As I conclude my time at the FAA, my confidence in you to meet our safety mission has never been stronger.”

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    The Reagan airport crash was the first major air disaster in the US since 2009.

    Addressing reporters, Trump blamed the crash on his political enemies, and on diversity, equity and inclusion policies at the FAA.

    Chris Murphy, the Democratic senator from Connecticut, called those remarks “disgusting”.

    Saying it would take time to find out why the crash happened, Murphy added: “There are some true things: President Trump forced out of office the administrator of the FAA. He’s been waging a regular assault on public employees since he came into office. He forced the entire Aviation Security [Advisory Committee] to step down.

    “We don’t know whether those things had anything to do with this crash, but we should take the time to get to the facts.”

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    Figure skaters onboard Washington plane crash

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    Figure skaters onboard Washington plane crash


    U.S. figure skaters, their coaches and family members were passengers on an American Airlines jet that collided with an Army helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., and crashed into the Potomac River on Wednesday, U.S. Figure Skating said.

    The figure skaters were returning from a development camp that followed the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas.

    “U.S. Figure Skating can confirm that several members of our skating community were sadly aboard American Airlines Flight 5342, which collided with a helicopter yesterday evening in Washington, D.C.,” U.S. Figure Skating said in a statement. “We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts.”

    U.S. Figure Skating did not identify any of the members of its team that were onboard the flight.

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    The flight carried 60 passengers and four crew members. The airplane collided with the helicopter while attempting to land, prompting a large search-and-rescue operation in the Potomac River.

    There were multiple fatalities, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press, but the precise number of victims was unclear as rescue crews hunted for any survivors.

    Three soldiers were onboard the helicopter, an Army official said.

    Russian media also reported that two Russian figure skaters were on board the flight, and a presidential spokesman expressed condolences to the families and friends of those killed in the plane crash.

    “There were other of our fellow citizens there. Bad news from Washington today,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday morning.

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    Russia’s figure skating federation expressed its condolences to those who had lost loved ones in the crash but said it was unable to comment further.

    There was no immediate word on the cause of the collision, but all takeoffs and landings at the airport were halted as dive teams scoured the site and helicopters from law enforcement agencies across the region flew over the scene in methodical search for bodies.

    “We are going to recover our fellow citizens,” Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a somber news conference at the airport Thursday morning in which she declined to say how many bodies had been recovered.

    President Donald Trump said he had been “fully briefed on this terrible accident” and, referring to the passengers, added, “may God bless their souls.”

    The Federal Aviation Administration said the midair crash occurred before 9 p.m. ET when a regional jet that had departed from Wichita collided with a military helicopter on a training flight while on approach to an airport runway.

    The crash occurred in some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world, just over three miles south of the White House and the Capitol.

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    Investigators will try to piece together the aircrafts’ final moments before their collision, including contact with air traffic controllers and the loss of altitude by the passenger jet.

    Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later: “PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ.” Seconds after that, the two aircraft collided.

    Some 300 first responders were on scene. Inflatable rescue boats were launched into the Potomac River from a point along the George Washington Parkway, just north of the airport, and first responders set up light towers from the shore to illuminate the area near the collision site. At least a half-dozen boats were scanning the water using searchlights.

    “It’s a highly complex operation,” D.C. fire chief John Donnelly said. “The conditions out there are extremely rough for the responders.”

    The last fatal crash involving a U.S. commercial airline occurred in 2009 near Buffalo, New York. Everyone aboard the Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane was killed, including 45 passengers, 2 pilots and 2 flight attendants. Another person on the ground also died, bringing the total death toll to 50.

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    Wednesday’s collision recalled the crash of an Air Florida flight that plummeted into the Potomac on Jan. 13, 1982, that killed 78 people. That crash was attributed to bad weather.

    Reuters contributed to this report.



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