Denzel Washington might be one of the most celebrated actors of all-time, but that doesn’t mean he’s a fan of watching his own work. In an interview with The LA Times published Saturday, Washington explained, “I watch it so I know what I’m talking about. But I haven’t watched any film from my past from start to finish, not even ‘Malcolm X.’ All you see is what you did wrong. Also why would you do it anyway?”
He then asked his interviewer Jonathan Dean if he reads his own articles (“Absolutely not”) and added, “It’s the same. ‘Ooh, I was brilliant here — what a sentence. I should try that again.”
The actor also looked back on the year 2000, when the original “Gladiator” was released. “Well, in life, you learn, earn and then you return — as in give back. So if your life is 90 years long, up until 30 you learn and from 30 to 60 you earn. So in that era I was earning.”
“With a great agent, my career built into making money and so the earning kicked in and then life also kicked in, with bills, four kids and a house…” he continued, and then added, “After ‘Malcolm X’ I made some real clunkers. Look them up — I won’t say their names.” All his bad movies, he said, were made in the 1990s.
Despite those perceived “clunkers,” the actor said that he approached each film the same way. “But you bring yourself to the part. And, look, I think I’m a good guy. I try to do the right thing. I’m a simple guy and I got a great job and so, maybe, coming into my movies, you go, ‘Denzel? He’s a good guy — we’ve seen him in other things where he has that good in him.’ You bring yourself to your work, no matter what. And I try to help people.”
“You know, I stopped for gas the other day and I saw a woman stressed,” he added. “I’m just sensitive, I guess. My sister is bipolar, so I could tell that she was mentally ill. So I said, ‘How you doing, sweetheart?’ and asked if she needed money. I said, ‘$500?’ She said no — $1,000! I thought she ain’t that crazy!”
The woman didn’t recognize him, and he still gave her the money. “Then, as I’m pumping gas, she walked over to the shop window just rocking and a woman came out and looked like she was going to shoo her away,” Washington added. “Then she saw me and said, ‘I love you!’ So I said, ‘You have a chance to help somebody, like I helped her.’ And the woman did. And I love that.”
Oh, and about that rumored same-sex kiss in “Gladiator II?” Washington reiterated that it was filmed and cut — “I think they got chicken.”
You can read the rest of the interview with Denzel Washington at The Times.
