There is no Debating that shooting on location can make or break a film – which is why Denzel Washington was thrilled when his upcoming flick “The Great Debaters” was given the green light to film around Harvard University last spring.
“I loooove (shooting on location),” Washington said during a conference call with the press yesterday. “You just get that feeling, walking across the yard . . .”
Well, feeling Harvard Yard was as close as Denzel and his movie crew got to the hallowed ground because the Ivy League school doesn’t allow any commerical shooting of its campus. However, “The Great Debaters” did film the Great Debate inside Sanders Theatre’s Memorial Hall, one of the Crimson’s public facilities.
Washington’s second stab at the director’s role follows the true-to-life events of Wiley College during 1935 – the year the debate team from the all-black Texas school took on a prestigious white university to become the first black college to win the National Championship.
The film stars Denzel as Wiley’s debate team coordinator – and renowned poet – Melvin B. Tolson, and fellow Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker plays the college’s president.
Denzel said yesterday that he and his crew nearly didn’t make it to film in Massachusetts because of a cash crunch. Which precipitated a lot of Debate!
“We were going back and forth because of the budget. We were looking for spots in Louisiana but it wasn’t the same as walking in Memorial Hall,” said Washington, who also filmed at the Citi Center for the Performing Arts Wang Theatre. “I think that is important to the actors.”
Denzel was quick to admit that if the movie’s script followed the real-life story to the letter, Tolson and his undefeated debate team, played by Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett and Denzel Whitaker, would have wound up filming at the University of Southern California, the true National Champions of 1935.
But USC is a cinematic snore. Hollywood’s hot for Harvard!
“Harvard is the academic standard,” Washington told reporters, including one from the Crimson. “I always say the film is inspired by true events . . . Harvard just sounds better.”
However, Denzel said he got a kick out of telling the Harvard kids that it wasn’t their precious school that the Wiley kids were really up against.
“I always told them, ‘You know very well you weren’t the national champs,’ ” Washington laughed.
The studio will host a special screening for the Crimson crew on Dec. 18 before “The Great Debaters” opens on Christmas Day. An added advantage!
