Denzel Washington, one of the most esteemed and award-winning / award-winning actors of all time, is shockingly down to earth. Not in the sense that he can identify with you day-to-day – he’s been an A-list actor with the mansion and lifestyle since the 1990s – but because he gets curious about everything he does and is ready to to get involved. Like this interview. Instead of delivering rehearsed brand answers to softball questions, Washington wants a real discussion, which means he sometimes fires back questions right away. He’s not a jerk about it at all. He is not – Denzel, a guy who’s just as curious about you as he is about himself. The two-time Oscar winner, 67, is back in contention this year thanks to his brooding murderous turn as a myriad Scottish nobleman in Joel Coen’s The tragedy of Macbeth, which flows Apple TV + on 14 January. “His view of the show, which is almost universally praised by critics, is something he shakes off and says.”I was thrown wrong, ”with straight-faced honesty. “Yes, that’s what I told Joel. It’s a true story, you might ask him. I was like, ‘I think I was thrown wrong, Joel.’ That’s what I thought. “
Washington has perfected the fine art of the deadly return so much that it’s hard to say whether, or when, he’s actually making a joke. Which is clearly the point. Everything in life is not one way, which means when he makes a joke, he is serious, and when he is serious, he makes a joke. Can be. Take, for example, his headline in Macbeth, which actors superstitiously refer to as “the Scottish play”. Not Washington, who seems a little surprised when you ask him about it. “I just mentioned it Macbeth. I am not superstitious, ”he says.
When he works, Washington has no vanity. Need proof? See 2012’s Flight, in which his deeply disturbed pilot, who was admitted to hospital after an accident, stumbles around in search of a smoking area and exposes his posterior in an unflattering hospital gown. Now admittedly, tackling one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays is a very different kettle of fish. But Washington takes the same approach to every project.
“We rehearsed it like a play,” Washington says of Macbeth, “The play is the thing.”
“It starts with the words. Start with the text and get it in your bones and teach them and understand what it really means and what it means to you. Then, just be comfortable with the language and then get in there with the other actors, and of course get in there with the director and see what his or her vision is, ”he says.
In this case, it revolved around a power station trio: William Shakespeare, Joel Coen and Frances McDormand, playing a ferocious Lady Macbeth. “The play is the thing and the clues are there in the play, so you just dig into the text and find out what the fuck he was talking about. It was like being back in the theater. We practiced it like a play, we felt like a company, and you just did not want to drop the ball, you wanted to do your part, ”says Washington.
What he took away from this experience is pretty simple and straightforward: Once you’ve devoured a Chateau Margaux, you’re no longer interested in swinging Two Buck Chuck (with all due respect to the affordable liquor offering). “A desire to work with the best, ”says Washington. “Not to beat someone I’ve worked with before. I should not say that. But where I am now in life and meeting Joel and Fran and Shakespeare, that’s where I’m going. It’s hard to crown it, but that’s where I am. ”
Not that he’s stressed, because “after all, Shakespeare wrote a lot of plays.”
In 2017, Washington mentioned to a reporter that in the future, he only wanted to work on passion projects, stories that touched his soul. How did he fare? Like any father, he makes sure he “pays the bills”, but he is not cynical about it. He’s funny, in the same way, he’s funny in his movies, even when the movies is not comedies. So why, for the love of Hollywood, has he never done a straight comedy? “Nobody asks me, ”he answers. “Get the word out there. Nobody asks me. ”
“Practice day is a comedy, ”says Washington. “He’s a crazy cop who’s just making some bad decisions.”
Yet he is not sure that his films are without comedy. In fact, he considers 2001s Practice day – which earned him his second Oscar for portraying an unscrupulous, morally loose policeman – if possible a comedy film, and not a stressful thriller.
“This is a comedy! It’s a comedy, ”Washington playfully insists. “He is a crazy policeman. Are you boy’s 11? Tell your son he can see it. He’s a crazy cop who’s just making some bad decisions, like Macbeth. ” With this statement, Washington is also spilling around and also deadly serious. He challenges us to put his movies into neat categories, and he also pushes back on the ways he is perceived. Nothing is ever one thing.
For example, you could think of Washington as a cool, strong man. Someone who is in touch with their masculinity. Both Training day Alonzo Harris and Macbeth seem to prove the point – not to mention The equalizer, The hurricane, and numerous other roles. Macbeth, in particular, is a man who hunger for power and recognition, and whose clever wife Lady Macbeth plays on his ideas of what masculinity means to encourage him to strive forever. Being a man is equated with cruelty and violence, with a total lack of empathy or remorse. How does Washington define masculinity as it relates to these characters?
“Is not it interesting that you asked me this and it is a woman who tells him [Macbeth] how is he supposed to be? Let’s start there. ‘Be a man, man up. Go kill someone for crying out loud. ‘ Yes, ”he says. “What was the question? ”
How does he define masculinity?
“I do not know. I mean, I do not know. How do you define – Should it have a definition? And by whom? Who can define masculinity? Who is the expert on this? ” he shoots back. He is not upset, or flipping. He is thoughtful and searching. What if the core of Denzel. He’s never finished. Not even with self-reflection.
“I never thought of it… Again, I never thought of it that way. This is something beyond the character. This is not something I would look at, like, ‘Is he male or is he not? In what ways is he? ‘ Once again, I take my clues from the text. ”
His wife Pauletta saw and liked the movie, but Washington is not sure what she thought of his performance. “I have to ask her that. That’s a good question. I will ask her. I know she liked it, ”he says.
“You are never done. Your children are coming back, ”says Washington. “They’re coming back to college.”
All four of their children entered the family business, as producers, directors, or in the case of John David Washington, reputed actors. The paterfamilias roar when asked if his children are out of the house. Kind of. Can be. When he heard that the reporter had an 11-year-old son, he started laughing. “You are never done. Forget it. What, you think you have another six years or something, another eight years? No, they’re coming back. They come back after university, ”he says.
He has no advice for the younger generation or anyone he is willing to share. He also does not share any insights about their experience towards his own, because let’s admit it, it screams a cocky old codger. “You know, it sounds like some kind. Like a bitter old man. “Oh, it was harder.” He and they go through what they are going through. My son, also one of my daughters, and God bless them. They are talented and have a lot of opportunities, ”said Washington.
He also does not share parenting or relationship advice. “Men, listen to your wives? I do not know. I do not know. This is a difficult one. There is no book on how to do this. It’s kind of trial and error, hopefully not too much error. I’m going to start accusing you of this now, ”he riffed back.
Like having had a great career like Washington, he is not willing to analyze it or pick out a role he thinks has defined it particularly. Simply put: “I’m not looking back. For what? Something might be… Who said that? “Do not look back, something might benefit you.” Satchel Paige. He said, “Do not look back.” I think it was his quote, “Do not look back, something might benefit you.”
He hopes to return to the New York Theater, where he was majestic Heinings, The iceman is coming, and A raisin in the sun, if or when COVID-19 finally calms down somewhat. And at his age, it’s gratifying and exciting that Washington firmly believes his best work still lies ahead of him. He does not live in the past, nor does he watch his old movies. His best performance?
“Oh, hopefully, my next one. I never look at it that way. I do not look back at them like children or anything and, ‘This is my favorite child,’ or whatever. I watch a movie once so I know what I’m talking about and then it’s about that, ”he says.
The tragedy of Macbeth current now on Apple TV.
