Tiffany N D’Emidio: In your movie “Antwone Fisher�?, your book Finding Fish and even in your poetry you really exposed yourself. Were you ever afraid just letting it all out?

Antwone Fisher: No. When I was doing it I was feeling like I was benefiting from it somehow. It was cathartic for me so I wasn’t afraid while I was doing it. I think when I was growing up I was ashamed of my story. I never told anybody except for the commander, the guy that Denzel plays. I was more ashamed than anything.

TND: It took a long time for the film to actually be made. Why did it take so long and at what point did Denzel get involved?

AF: Most movies take years to be made unless it’s something that’s being put on the fast track. “Forest Gump�?, for example, took seven years to make. A lot of movies are like that. The scripts have been around for a long time. In my case, when I wrote it four years later Denzel got it. At that point he was obligated to do movies before he could get to mine so it took five or six years to get through his schedule.

TND: What was your experience you writing the screenplay and people in Hollywood not believing that you could pull this off?

AF: When I said I wanted to write it I didn’t understand that all these jobs are jobs that people go to school for. They have their careers and they make money and there aren’t many writers that are working writers that make a living from it. So when you say you want to write a screenplay everybody is like what do you mean. It’s like saying I want to direct it or I want to star in it. It’s like a club and you’re not in the club. Especially if have a security guard uniform on it’s like “Hey, you’re a security guard.�? I think people are protective of their territory. If you say you want to be a writer that means somebody wont have a job that a legitimate guild member.

TND: Being a security guard on the lot, did that enhance your motivation to do this or did you have it when you got there?

AF: No. I didn’t go to the lot to be a writer. I was a prison guard and I got stressed out being there and I just heard that they were hiring security guards at Sony Pictures. So I went over there to get a job to get away from this one. I wasn’t planning on staying there. That’s the time when I started looking for my family. I hadn’t been there long enough to accumulate time off so I had to tell my boss why I wanted to go. While I was gone he told some people on the lot about my story. When I got back some executives wanted to talk to me about my story. I didn’t think it would cost anybody anything to encourage me to write and they told me no because I hadn’t been to film school, hadn’t been to college and no writing experience. So I got some legal pads and I went and wrote it by hand.

TND: Was there anything that was left out of the film or that you wish they had touched on?

AF: I think I got what I wanted. There were a few scenes that were in the screenplay that we didn’t do because it was just too much.

TND: Do you think Denzel Washington was the key to the success of this film?

AF: Oh yes. Anyone who thinks the movie is successful because of me or Derek or Joy or anybody…it’s Denzel. People like to think magically because they like a good story.

TND: In the film it show’s you meeting your mother for the first time. Do you have a relationship with her now?

AF: People ask the question in the spirit of the knowledge of their own mother. You had experiences of your mother taking care of you when you were growing up. She cooked for you and all that other stuff. But for me, I never saw her before in my entire life. So if I was walking down the street and someone says oh that’s your mother, never having had that experience, there wouldn’t be a magic field that draws me to her and suddenly it’s oh mom. I had to grow up the way I had to grow up. I had to make the best of what I had and at the age of 33 when I met her it was like seeing an absolute stranger. But since they say she’s my mother I try to figure out how we can communicate because you can start a relationship with an absolute stranger. Our lives have been so different there was really nothing that we had in common except for DNA. Even so, I felt that my daughter should meet her and she cursed her out for standing on the vinyl sofa. So that was the end of that. I have no history at all. There’s no reason to put up with that.

TND: So does the future hold more screenplays for you?

AF: Yes. You know, I’ve been writing screenplays for nine or ten years. I’ve written two books, a television show. I wrote this movie ten years ago so I’ve been working so since then I’ve been working.

TND: It seems like it’s overnight but in reality you’ve had an entire career up to this point.

AF: People like to think that Derek (Derek Luke) and I were working at the studio at the same time plotting to make a movie. Derek was in high school when I was working as a security guard. I was a screenwriter for many years when I met him.

TND: Will you do more poetry?

AF: Oh yeah. I’ve always written it. Because people like the poem, Who Cries for the Little Boy, and would ask on the website where to get a copy I asked my publisher if they would publish some of my poetry. I made it small so people could sit and read it and not feel obligated to sit for a long time.