Antwone Fisher.

The 2002 movie “Antwone Fisher” is about a Navy psychiatrist who helps a troubled sailor and former foster child work through his emotional trauma and go on to become a Hollywood writer, public speaker and author.

 However, the critically acclaimed movie does not tell the whole story, the real Antwone Fisher told SocialWorkersSpeak.org. Three social workers — Bill Ward, Jill Edwards and Patricia Nees — played pivotal, positive roles in his life, Fisher said. Their story is told more fully in his book on which the movie is based, “Finding Fish.”

“Social work is really important,” said Fisher, 50, speaking by telephone from New York City where he was promoting his new book, “A Boy Should Know How to Tie a Tie” ($19.99, Touchstone Hardcover/Simon & Schuster).

“If it weren’t for social workers some kids would be like Oliver Twist. There wouldn’t be anybody watching over them and they wouldn’t be affiliated with anybody. People are hard on social workers. Let them go out there and try to do what social workers try to do.”

Fisher was born in prison and placed in foster homes in Cleveland, Ohio soon after birth. He was eventually placed with the Pickett family where he suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse and later became homeless before joining the Navy.

Social workers did not rescue him from his abusive home, possibly because his foster mother coerced him into believing social workers could not help him so Fisher kept silent. “They (social workers) didn’t seem as powerful as my foster mother,” he said. “My foster mother told me and my foster brother that they weren’t powerful.”

However social workers still had a positive impact on Fisher. Fisher said he had 13 different social workers during his childhood but Edwards was the first he connected with emotionally. “She was always on the kids’ side — I loved her for that,” he said. “She made me feel I was not in the world by myself.”

After Mrs. Pickett threw Fisher out of her home Nees secured money to buy Fisher clothing and gave him information about himself that he never knew, including the name of his birth mother and his middle name, “Quenton.” She was also probably the first to warn that Fisher was a “walking pressure cooker” in need of therapy.

And then there was Bill Ward, pragmatic and kind social worker who gave the soon-to-be-an-adult Fisher a wake-up call and told him to stop feeling sorry for himself. He warned Fisher that at 18 he would age out of the foster care system and have to largely fend for himself.

“I was really mad at him for saying that,” Fisher said. “But I was getting down to the wire — I was almost 18. There was no more time for gentle strokes.”

After serving in the Navy Fisher worked as a prison guard and then a security guard at Sony Pictures. He reconnected with his birth family and wrote his life story, which got the attention of Sony executives. He eventually sold the film rights to 20th Century Fox.

Actor Denzel Washington directed the film and played Navy psychiatrist Dr. Jerome Davenport. Actor Derek Luke portrayed the adult Antwone Fisher in the film.

Fisher has stayed in contact with all three social workers. In fact, Ward dropped by when “Antwone Fisher” was filming some scenes in Fisher’s old Cleveland neighborhood. Ward was proud Fisher left Cleveland homeless but returned in a limousine.

“Way to come back!,” he said to Fisher.

Antwone has written several books and is also a poet. His latest book, “A Boy Should Know How to Tie a Tie and Other Lessons for Succeeding in Life,” offers young men tips on grooming, self-confidence, finances, dressing for success, personal fitness and diet. These are lessons Fisher wished someone had taught him while growing up. “I heard somebody describe it as Dad in a book,” he said.