The Creator Star John David Washington Made His Geek Bonafides Clear In An Early Meeting
In the upcoming film "The Creator," John David Washington ("BlacKkKlansman," "Tenet") plays Joshua, an ex-special forces agent who is going through some personal issues. The film is set in the future where artificial intellience and humans are in a war after the former nukes Los Angeles. Joshua is asked to take out the Creator, who 20th Century Studios calls "the elusive architect of advanced A.I.," who has created a secret weapon to stop the entire war and could mean the end of the human race. Joshua is supposed to destroy this weapon as well, however, it appears in the form of a little human child, making his mission rather difficult to follow up on.
/Film's own Vanessa Armstrong attended a sneak preview event where 30 minutes of footage from "The Creator" was screened, complete with a Q&A with writer/director Gareth Edwards ("Rogue One: A Star Wars Story"), where the he spoke about meeting Washington for the first time. The actor (who is the son of Denzel Washington) made it very clear that he is a proud geek, something which initially caught Edwards off guard, and not in a good way, at least at first.
'I initially thought ... he's doing this because of Rogue One'
As you know, Edwards directed "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," so you can understand why he reacted to the first meeting with Washington as he initially did. Edwards explained:
"JD, John David, it was during the pandemic we were casting the film, so it was really hard to meet anybody. Fortunately, he lived in L.A., and I just heard through his agents, like, 'Hey, he'd meet you anytime you want. Go for a meal.'
"So I did ... he walks in, and it is the pandemic, so he's got his mask. But it was a 'Star Wars' mask. It had a 'Star Wars' logo on it. And I initially thought, 'Oh, no. He's doing this because of Rogue One.' [laughs] He sat down and he admitted — he's a massive 'Star Wars' fan — he's like, 'I've been wearing this mask every single day for a year, or whatever it's been in the pandemic.' And he's like, 'I thought about not wearing it to this meeting, but then it felt false, and I thought it would be a good ice breaker.'"
It's nice to know I wasn't the only person in a "Star Wars" mask for the entire pandemic. Look, I know someone saying they love something doesn't mean they should be immediately cast in that franchise, but let's make an exception for John David Washington, okay? If he loves it enough to risk a bad reaction from the writer/director of a project he was hoping to do, he really loves it.
A light anecdote for a dark movie
That's a very sweet little "Star Wars" anecdote about a film that looks like it's going to be pretty dark. The idea of taking something that we're supposed to hate and putting it in the body of something we're supposed to protect and nurture is diabolical. It also might be just what humanity needs. For example, I can't stand things like robotics company Boston Dynamics putting A.I. tech into a dog-like body and then kicking it. It produces a visceral reaction in me and a need to fix things for the robot dog. However, that reaction on a large scale — as we see in the trailer — probably means that in the real world, humans might be less likely to abuse what could develop into a being with sentience.
It might not be a 1:1 comparison, but the idea does take it back to "Star Wars" and makes me think of the loyalty of the reprogrammed Imperial enforcer droid K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk) in Edwards' "Rogue One." Perhaps what we're looking at with Edwards' speculative future of A.I. is exactly what we need to see before the technology goes any further.
"The Creator" also stars Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, Sturgill Simpson, Madeleine Yuna Voyles, Allison Janney, Ralph Ineson, Marc Menchaca, and Veronica Ngo, and it will hit theaters on September 29, 2023.