40 Fun Facts About Antwone Fisher

Which two-time Oscar winner made his directing debut on Antwone Fisher and played its doctor?

Denzel Washington was first sent the script only as an actor; his agent then called to say he wanted to direct it as well.

The lead actor of Antwone Fisher was working where on the Sony Pictures lot when he won the role?

The gift shop is where the director came to deliver the news himself, greeting the stunned clerk by the character's first name.

The real Antwone Fisher held which job at Sony Pictures when a producer first heard his story?

Security guard was a job he was only two months into when he told his supervisor his story to get time off, and word spread across the lot.

Antwone Fisher's teenage mother gave birth to him in what kind of place, soon after his father died?

A prison was his birthplace because Eva Mae, then 17, was behind bars at the time; she never claimed him, and he grew up in foster care.

When the adult Antwone Fisher confronts his abusive foster mother, what lead does she give him?

His father's name, Edward Elkins, is all she offers, and it sends him through the phone book until a relative answers.

Which newcomer, a friend of the real Antwone Fisher, landed the film's title role?

Derek Luke had brief sitcom appearances behind him, on Moesha and The King of Queens, when the director chose him as a new face.

To which city, where he grew up in foster care, does Antwone Fisher return to find his family?

Cleveland is where the real Fisher was born, and the film's scenes of his youth and homecoming were filmed there on location.

At which holiday dinner at his home does Dr. Davenport urge Antwone Fisher to find his real family?

Thanksgiving also mattered in real life: his father's relatives sent the real Fisher a plane ticket to spend that holiday with them.

Which future Oscar winner appears briefly in Antwone Fisher as the mother who never claimed him?

Viola Davis later won her Oscar for Fences, made by the same director 14 years after this brief supporting part.

In Antwone Fisher, what offense gets Antwone demoted, fined and ordered into psychiatric treatment?

Fighting a shipmate exposes a temper rooted in childhood abuse, which is why his commanding officer adds therapy to the punishment.

What greets Antwone Fisher at his late father's family home near the end of the film?

A welcome feast is laid out by relatives he has never met, the moment he finally finds the family he lost.

The naval base scenes of Antwone Fisher were filmed over five weeks in which California port city?

San Diego gave the crew three working bases, and its sunshine was meant as a contrast to the rainy days of the childhood scenes.

The film Antwone Fisher reveals its hero's painful childhood mainly through which storytelling device?

Flashbacks surface as he opens up in therapy, because the film centers on the doctor-patient bond while the book covers his whole life.

Which model turned actress, later of Parenthood, plays love interest Cheryl in Antwone Fisher?

Joy Bryant bought her own plane ticket from New York to audition in Los Angeles, after hounding her agents about the part.

In Antwone Fisher, Dr. Davenport finally admits he and his wife have avoided which private grief?

Their childlessness was a problem he had been failing to deal with, and he says treating Antwone pushed him to confront it.

On leave in which country does Antwone Fisher brawl with a sailor who taunts him?

Mexico is where the fight breaks out in a nightclub; later, in a cell, Antwone confides to Davenport the sexual abuse he suffered as a child.

Which relative, traced through phone books, does Antwone Fisher meet first from his father's side?

An aunt, Annette Elkins, is the first he visits, and through that side of the family he learns his mother lives close by.

How did Edward Elkins, the father of Antwone Fisher, die two months before his son was born?

Shot by a girlfriend described as jealous, he was only 23, and his child grew up without knowing either parent.

In Antwone Fisher, best friend Jesse is killed while doing what, a loss Antwone still resents?

Attempting a robbery got Jesse killed, and Antwone finally admits he resents his friend for leaving him behind, as so many others had.

Antwone Fisher learned screenwriting in a free class held in what kind of venue in Los Angeles?

A church hosted the class, taught by a man who wanted to give something back to South Central after the 1992 riots.

At which event did the star of Antwone Fisher win Best Male Lead, having once waited tables there?

Independent Spirit Awards night came four years after his waiting shift, in a debut season that also brought the National Board of Review's breakthrough prize.

Which Las Vegas polling firm recorded a rare A+ grade from moviegoers for Antwone Fisher?

CinemaScore surveys film audiences and reports a letter grade; only about 53 films earned its top mark between 2000 and early 2020.

Which actor, later Han in the Fast & Furious films, plays a receptionist in Antwone Fisher?

Sung Kang took the small part, at the psychiatrist's front desk, the same year as his breakout in Better Luck Tomorrow, where he first played Han.

Which specialty label, whose first big hit was The Full Monty, released Antwone Fisher?

Fox Searchlight was the banner its parent studio chose after buying the script, though the story had first surfaced on the Sony lot.

Nearly all the uniformed extras seen on base in Antwone Fisher came from which real-life group?

Off-duty service members from the bases where filming took place filled the ranks, officers as well as enlisted men and women.

After the Navy and before Sony Pictures, the real Antwone Fisher spent three years in which job?

Corrections officer for the federal government was the job he took after his discharge; he later said he had grown lonely without his Navy family.

Which organization named Antwone Fisher among its ten outstanding movies of 2002?

American Film Institute jurors praised it for raising unspoken topics, and years later gave the film's director their Life Achievement Award.

Which history book does Dr. Davenport urge on Antwone Fisher to explain his foster mother's cruelty?

The Slave Community, by historian John W. Blassingame, used psychology to trace a mentality that slavery may have passed down the generations.

Which actress, later Allison Blake on Eureka, plays the psychiatrist's wife in Antwone Fisher?

Salli Richardson, the film's Berta Davenport, had voiced detective Elisa Maza in Disney's Gargoyles and later became an Emmy-nominated director.

Which star of 1979's The Amityville Horror cameos as the commanding officer in Antwone Fisher?

James Brolin, father of actor Josh Brolin, appears only briefly, as the superior whose order sends the young sailor into therapy.

What did the makers of Antwone Fisher do for the neighborhood used for the childhood scenes?

The crew renovated its buildings, including the apartment block and foster home seen on screen, and hired residents to work on the shoot.

The foster family in the film Antwone Fisher, really the Picketts, appears under which surname?

The Tates stand in for the reverend and his wife who fostered the real Fisher through most of his childhood, and the film keeps the husband a preacher.

In Antwone Fisher, which Navy hearing brings Antwone a demotion, a fine and 45 days on ship?

Captain's mast is the Navy's name for non-judicial punishment, imposed by a commanding officer rather than a court; the Army calls it Article 15.

Which Pursuit of Happyness producer paid Antwone Fisher from his own pocket to write the script?

Todd Black wrote the check from his own family account, then set the first-time writer up in a bungalow on the studio lot so he could work in peace.

Which composer, later an Oscar winner for Life of Pi, wrote the score for the film Antwone Fisher?

Mychael Danna, a Canadian who began in film with director Atom Egoyan, took both the Oscar and the Golden Globe for Life of Pi a decade later.

Which Producers Guild honor, named for the director of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, went to Antwone Fisher?

Stanley Kramer Award winners are chosen for illuminating provocative social issues, and this was only the second one ever presented.

Antwone Fisher won which screenwriting honor, founded by a priest in the 1970s?

Humanitas Prize juries honor film and television writing that explores the human condition; Father Ellwood Kieser started it in 1974.

Which child actor, later Walt on Lost, plays the seven-year-old hero in Antwone Fisher?

Malcolm David Kelley had only small television parts before this first major role, and a growth spurt later cut short his time on Lost.

In Antwone Fisher, what news from Dr. Davenport after a graduation leaves Antwone feeling abandoned?

Their sessions are ending, he says, because Antwone must progress on his own; the news triggers the breakdown that sends him looking for his family.

Antwone Fisher first screened publicly in September 2002 at which North American film festival?

Toronto hosted the premiere more than three months before the film reached American theaters that December.