H e was born in a women's state prison two months after his father had been shot dead by an angry girlfriend. Abandoned by his mother, he was brought up by a foster family who tied him up, beat him unconscious and held flames to his face. He was sexually abused by an older woman, a neighbour, and warned never to tell.
When he finally resisted the violence from his foster family, he was sent to a reform school and ended up on the streets as a homeless teenager. Last week, he was a guest of Hillary Clinton in Washington, and this month the film about his life opens in London.
The extraordinary story of Antwone Fisher, subject of the directorial debut of the Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington , began in Cleveland, Ohio in It was there that his year-old mother, Eva, gave birth while locked up in a correctional institution, serving time for shoplifting and truancy.
You can't take out the blocks at the bottom - those memories of your childhood - or the house would fall down. So you have to find a way to deal with the things that are The family with whom he was placed as a toddler were like creatures from a Gothic horror story, his foster mother an expert in the art of casual sadism.
When Christmas came, he would have been too naughty to receive a single present, while the gifts of his foster mother's real children and grandchildren would be displayed beneath the Christmas tree. His foster mother was black but referred to Antwone constantly as 'nigga!
What is not a blur is the memory of that time and, says Fisher, even after reading his memoirs and seeing the film, we will not know the half of it. It was worse for his foster brother, he says, who has spent most of his adult life in prison: 'I'm sure they're the reason why I get more emotional about other people than I did about myself, and I know it was terrible for my foster brother.
Fisher's background is such a template for a future life of crime or addiction that it seems remarkable that he emerged a friendly, open, happily married father of two with a career as a Hollywood screenwriter and a shiny sports utility vehicle with a personalised numberplate parked outside his handsome house.
So how come so many of his contemporaries ended up in prison or the mortuary and he did not? In , Fisher married his wife, LaNette Fisher, with whom he has two children. In , Fisher published his autobiography, Finding Fish. After this, Fisher fielded several competing offers for the film rights. After declining several offers, he ultimately sold the rights to his story to 20th Century Fox.
Shortly thereafter, the film Antwone Fisher was released with actor Derek Luke portraying the title character. The film was directed by Denzel Washington, who portrayed Commander Williams.
Become a Member Sign up. Already a member? Contribute to our 20 Campaign. Education MegaMenu. Higher Education. Classroom Support. No one knows who I am so it doesn't matter whether he copied my mannerisms or not, because no one knows me. If he came in and acted like Will Smith, then people would be disappointed because he's not being Muhammad Ali. It's much harder to do famous people. His father, Eddie, was shot and killed before Antwone was even born. Antwone was placed in foster care within the first few weeks of his life, and for two years he lived with a loving family.
The state eventually put Antwone back in the foster system, claiming that Antwone's attachment to his foster mother could be problematic. He was subsequently placed in the home of Reverend and Mrs. Pickett, where some of his most traumatic childhood experiences unfolded. For fourteen years with the Picketts, Antwone suffered both emotional and physical abuse. AP photo by Nam Y. What's a mom to do when her angelic daughter turns into a tantrum-throwing adolescent? Borowitz, a self-proclaimed uncool I joked that I planned to "drop a Barbara Antwone Fisher's Hollywood ending Sun T.
Q: No college, no film school. What made you think you could write your own movie? Q: What was your mother's response to the movie?
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