Bringing 'Young Washington' to Life: An Interview with Screenwriter/Producer Tom Provost

Jonno Davies and William Franklyn-Miller in 'Young Washington' | Photo image courtesy The Wonder Project
Long before he became the commander of the Continental Army and the first president of the United States, George Washington was a young man whose experiences, challenges, and choices helped shape the leader he would become.

As our nation winds down the celebration of her 250th birthday at the end of 2026, the movie Young Washington (now available on Wonder Project’s home subscription service) offers a timely opportunity to revisit the life of one of America’s founding fathers and reflect on the people and events that helped shape our nation.

I recently sat down with Tom Provost, a screenwriter and producer for Young Washington, to discuss the film, the story behind it, and why George Washington’s early years still matter today.

How does the “young” Washington differ from the Washington that we knew as statesman and president? How did many of the qualities he had as a young man translate to later in life as the man we know as our nation’s first president?

It's very fascinating because the man we all know, we kind of put on a pedestal, and he's the man who's the founder of our country. He's a great servant leader. He took down the British. And ironically, when he was young, which is what we show in the movie, it’s all true. All he wanted to be was a Brit and be high up in the British army. And they disdained him. They were condescending to him. And through a series of really remarkable, horrible failures, including the fact that some of us would say young George actually started the French and Indian War.

It changed him. And he learned to take his attention off himself and focus on the people around him. And by going through a series of failures, as we say in the movie, I think his mom is the one who says, “Failure is God's tutor.” He learned how to be a much better man, and that paved his way to be the George Washington we now revere. In the movie, it takes him off the pedestal and makes him real, because he was a real guy. He was just a guy like you and me who happened to become the founder of our country.

Our fledgling country could have picked a number of men to be our first president. What is it about George Washington that made him stand out among all the others?

I think it was his non-desire to be the head of the country. The reason we even have two terms is because after two terms, he specifically stepped down. And King George at the time even said, "How could a man give up such power?" And I think it was the fact that he had become such a great servant leader, was so humble, and had no desire for power even back then, like today. The people around him were grasping for power. I think that is what set him apart. And of course, physically, he was set apart. He was four to six inches taller than anybody else. He was this amazing physical specimen, and he was just, by that time, a good, solid guy that everyone trusted.

How do you think George Washington came to grips with who he was becoming in the leadup to America becoming a nation? Do you think he planned for this moment or did it just sort of happen organically?

It's hard to know at what point he might have realized he had a destiny. Everyone around him kept saying, "God is in control of your life and has destined you for something." This is specific. We even have a scene in the movie that is accurate where some of the Native Americans who were trying to kill him, meet with him. We changed the timeline. It happened a little bit later in real life than it happens in the movie, but they specifically tell him, "In our tribe we have had a story that we will encounter a man we cannot kill, and God is in control of his life.” And that happened. He's such a humble man. I'm not quite sure at what point he realized it but I think at some point he had to have felt God's hand guiding his life.

As a screenwriter and producer of this film, what qualities of young George Washington were you hoping to convey to movie audiences? For me, there were certainly strong elements of honor, loyalty to a cause, and the courage to defend it.

We wanted to start off to show an arc. We wanted to show that he was rather self-obsessed and there's a touch of this in the movie. He was very concerned about his appearance, and very fastidious about his look. And he was very frustrated that he couldn't go to school the way his brother did, so he studied by himself. We wanted to show that so that we could show the growth of him as happened in the movie as he realizes he needs to become a servant leader. But we also just wanted to show that everyone is flawed. And I think one of the things that makes young Washington relatable is the fact that he does have flaws, like we all do every day. And look, I'm much older than he is in the movie and I still have failures today.

And it puts me on my knees and forces me to ask God for help and ask my friends for help. I relate to him because I lived a lot of my life as an island. I thought I didn’t need anybody. And George was very much that way. So I related to him, but I think a lot of younger audiences are really keen on the movie and enjoying it because at that age, they're going through the same things he went through. It might have been 250 years ago, but they're experiencing the same things, wrestling with the same desires, passions, flaws, and faults that he did back then.

After audiences have had a chance to see Young Washington on streaming video, what would you like to see people take away from that experience? What is your greatest hope for the film?

My greatest hope is that people are just moved by it. I cry every time I see it. And I don't cry very much, but I cry every time I see the movie. I just hope people have a wonderful experience and maybe learn something and are edified. The movie is so much about struggle, that when I have a bad day, I can think about George's life and think, "Okay, that guy got through this and survived, and so I can get through this." Jon (Erwin) often says that what he wants people to do is if they have a great time at the movie and they love it, go dive into the history books and learn more and more. That's very much Jon's desire, and I think that's a wonderful thing that seems to be happening. There are certain books about Washington in 1776 and the Revolution that are bouncing up on Amazon, and I'd like to think we have a little bit of a part in that.

WATCH A TRAILER FOR YOUNG WASHINGTON: