Denzel Washington
Appearances
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
I was bitter when I put it down or I was bitter when I picked it up.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
I was probably bitter when I picked it up. Not when I put it down. I wasn't bitter when I put it down. Yeah. But what were you bitter about? What? Pick something. I don't know. Any excuse will do.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Who commanded it? We don't have that much time, brother. Yeah, we don't have that much time.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
No, I kept a letter from my English teacher. Oh, why was it something that you kept? He just wanted to get all in my business because it made me feel good. It was a letter of recommendation. That's what it was.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
But you are all up in my business, man.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
And I don't like it, man. I'm joking. I'm joking.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
That was a joke. I know how to get you now. You're easy.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Okay, I'll give you an expansive answer. Ask me a question and I'm going to give you an expansive answer.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Yes. That was your answer, right?
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
That's a good question. Finally. No, no, because I don't know that it, it didn't feel like 20 years. We had such great success. 20 years ago? I guess he kicked me to the curb and started working with my son, actually, when I come to think of it. Maybe, yeah, he kicked me to the curb and started working with my son. No, it felt like we picked up where we left off, you know? I mean, Spike is Spike.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Meaning? Spike is consistent. Lee Spike. I love that about him and I love working with him and I'd work with him again. And, you know, I just like the way his brain works.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Well, here's your opportunity to get back on track. with your next question. All right, I'll try again. I'll try again. Okay. It's not going to work. Yes, it will. How are you going to say it's not going to work before you even try? Okay, I'll try. I'll try. It's not going to work.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Did it show me anything about my own situation? Not that I recall. I mean, first of all, I didn't drink and work, never have. I'd work and then drink, like maybe when I'm finished the movie or whatever. So I wasn't, to be honest with you, I don't even remember whether I was drinking those evenings or not. I don't really recall, to be honest with you. But what was the question you said?
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Did it affect, you said, did it what?
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
I think when you're in the middle of it, you're not so self-reflective because you're still working out the character. You haven't shot the last scene. You don't know how it ends, in a sense. You know, not making light of it, but not when you're in the middle of it so much. I think that's with any character.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
If you're thinking about it, which I probably wasn't. Yeah.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
What do you need to work on more than anything else? If you said to yourself, I wish I was better at this, what would that be?
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
No, come on. Don't deflect. We're talking about you now.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
You're not assertive enough.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
No, you're deflecting. You said I can't deflect, so you don't deflect. Okay, no, good point. I don't know. What do I need to work on the most? Even my answer sounds like a deflection. I was going to mention my faith, but that sounds like deflection. I don't know. Maybe that's a good thing. I can't think of something I need to really work on.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Not thinking hard enough. Yeah, maybe I'm not thinking hard enough. You know, relationships, you can always do better there. How? Okay, I'm a talker, so I got to work on listening. Doesn't feel like you're a talker. No, I guess because I'm listening today. It's a role I'm playing. Wait, ask me another one.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Tell me the second thing that you love, not the first thing, the second thing you love the most.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
I like both of those answers. I'm running with that. Laughter and intellectual stimulation. Stimulation.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Okay, your turn. The thing that what? The thing you love second most, I think, was the question. I think the opportunity... to lift others up. How have you done that? Every opportunity in every which way I can. Sometimes with a dime, sometimes with a dollar, sometimes with a good word. I love helping people. I love seeing people do well.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
So any opportunity I get to do that is really selfish because it makes me feel good.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
It's an opportunity for good to take advantage of it. Evil is short-term. Evil always has an end. Evil's always revisited on the evil. Period. That's all I got to say about it. It's always revisited on the evil.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
We're the only animal on the planet that God has blessed with free will. You don't believe me? Run from a lion and see if the lion goes, ah, I think he's a nice guy. He does good interviews. We're going to let him live today. No, he's going to chase you down. He's going to eat you.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Man goes down to the ocean and tries to fit all the knowledge of the ocean into his little brain instead of just jumping in the water and enjoying himself. Sometimes you just have to have faith in things bigger than our ability to understand them. Now, you call it what you want. Some call it God. You call it what you want.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
But sometimes you just have to jump in the water and enjoy yourself and not try to figure it out.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Well, the day you didn't get a nomination for an Oscar, you're working on Othello on Broadway. Are you kidding me? Oh, oh, I'm so upset.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
It's going well. In fact, we have our first day today, which is day four of rehearsal, where we'll start just starting to stand it up on his feet. Just starting today will be the first day of blocking.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Man goes down to the ocean. I forgot where I got that. I might have been some yogi. I don't know where I got it from. But the way I interpret it over the years, the way I've come to understand it is that jumping in the water is faith. Just jump in. You know, you can't figure it all out.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Oh, I've tried everything else. Yeah, I've tried everything else. I was reading Matthew today, and it talks about the mustard seed, and if you put it in rocky soil, it won't grow, and all those things. It talks about faith, that you have to have faith that it will grow. And it talked about this. You can't even figure out how it grows, but why it grows or where the sun comes from. Man goes down.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Here's what I mean. Man tries to reduce everything down to his understanding, which is the ultimate in ego, which is if I don't understand it, it doesn't exist. So people don't understand God. So some say, therefore, he doesn't exist. Or they say, I'm God, because that's what they need. Well, I'm like, how's that working out? If that works for you, okay. Yeah.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
I was watching something interesting last night. I'm jumping all over the place. Yeah, go for it. This is already going better than last time. I was watching this thing about Herod. Man. Oh, King Herod. Oh, so this long special. I was like, man, he was a mess. See, he thought he could think his way around.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
So he kept building things on higher and higher places and he's going to be up here looking down on everybody. And obviously he was a genius, but I guess he died in the worst way. I don't know. I don't remember.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
That's a whole—you go down that hole, you'll never come out of that. I hope they enjoy the show, but I can't—I don't know what you need. I can't—we don't do a poll before the screening or before the play starts, and— There's some interesting themes of jealousy and envy and pain and death. And Kenny, brilliant director, he's putting in what he calls the near future.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
So it's now, let's say, or near now. So all of those things, jealousy, envy, all of that, it takes on a whole new thing with the information age. What's your favorite line from Othello? I don't know.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Are they from him? Well, one's from Othello.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
I am not what I am. He said it yesterday. He's a complicated guy. He's going to be brilliant in this. Who Jake Gyllenhaal is playing Iago. He's crazy. He's nuts. I love him. He's complicated. But he's already got a handle on it. You know, I can see how far ahead people are than me. I'm not worried about that because I don't like to learn the lines too soon.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
I was telling a young actor, like, well, why don't you like to learn them too soon? I says, because then I'm the voice I'm listening to delivering the cues to myself. I want to hear it from you. And that's going to affect how I say what I say. So for me, that works. And to be quite honest, because I played it before, I still kind of remember it, but it's not word for word.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
I got baptized, and I have to now take courses to obtain a license. But I did get baptized. But I'm not an ordained minister.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
I'm seeing where I miss a word here, a word there. So it's not like I learned the first scene last night. And about an hour and a half, I ran a little bit with the kid this morning before I saw you. And I'm like, oh, okay, I'll be all right.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
In a good way. In a good way. Oh, yeah, in a great way. Are you complicated? I'm sure, yeah. I hope so. I mean, you know, trying to thin the herd. Keep it simple. My mother used to say that. Keep it simple. That's hard to do. I'd like to tell you that this morning I woke up and started thinking about God. I woke up and started thinking about Othello. But then I said, but that's okay.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
You're excited. You know, it's an interesting place for me to visit now, 48 years after I visited it the first time on the way to work. We were going down Ninth Avenue and we passed Fordham University. And I said, the first day of rehearsal, Tuesday, I said, wow, 48 years ago, I was doing Othello right there.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
At 22, and now I'm heading over here to 45th, whatever it is, Fifth Street, to do Othello again. Ain't life interesting? And I'm only two blocks away from where we live now, which, you know, and we overlook the park. Oh, my wife. I remember saying to my mother, I said, Ma, you know, all these years, I only moved two blocks. She said, yeah, but you went up 14 stories as only a mother.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
How does acting fit into that? That's why you pray every day. I'm like, okay, Lord, I'm here. I think this is what you wanted me to do. Now, I'm not sure why, you know, but one can say coincidence and serendipity and all those things. I bit my tongue almost half off about a few months ago, and it's affecting my speech. It forces me to slow down. You know, as they say, bite your tongue.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Othello says, rude am I in my speech. I said, you mean I bit my tongue? Well, the fact of the matter is that is what it is. And I got to go forward with it.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
I have to use it. I have a line. I'm just starting to learn it. Whither will you that I go to answer this your charge? Whither will you that... You see what I'm saying? It's hard. It's hard. And because my tongue is... Yeah, my tongue is sore. And I got some temporary tooth put in because my tooth fell out of my head. So everything is thicker. It's affected everything.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
I went for a ride one day, and I decided to go up to Harlem. I was in Manhattan. I decided to get my car and drive up to Harlem. And riding around, thinking of places where my mother lived. And I stopped in front of the church that my mother grew up in. And the door was cracked. So I went in. And they were celebrating the young students, members of the church that were going to college.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
And I'm thinking that's a bad thing. So I don't think it's ever going to heal. It's like I got a little flap in there now.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Jump in the water and enjoy yourself. Instead of worrying about drowning.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
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The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
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The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
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The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
And I got involved in that. And one thing led to another. And whatever it was, weeks later, months later, I got baptized.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
It was prophesied in my youth that I would travel the world and preach or speak to millions of people. I used to think that I was doing that through my work. Now I'm trying to be a bit more specific. about speaking about my faith.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Well, a woman was sitting in my mother's beauty shop in March 1975. The reason I was in there was because I'd flunked out of college.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Yeah, I was up in Mount Vernon, and I was told to take a semester off from school to think about my, you know, what I wanted to do. And every time I looked up in the mirror, I saw this woman looking at me, and she said she was having a prophecy. She said I would travel the world and preach to millions of people.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
She didn't say anything about me being an actor or getting back in school, but I have traveled the world, and I am speaking more and more.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
You know, I don't separate one, nor do I categorize. But it's definitely given me the platform to speak.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
The universal stems from the specific, so you gotta be more specific. In what way?
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
It's 48 years between, I played Othello at 22 and I'm going back at 70. So the challenge of that, I love the theater. I started in the theater. I learned to act on stage and as an actor, I think that still gives me the greatest joy is acting on stage as opposed to acting in movies.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Film is a director's medium. No matter what you do as an actor, the director slash editor decides whether it's in the movie or not.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
theater is an actor's medium once the curtain goes up it's between us and the audience and they they tell you how they feel that that night um you know you've been acting for a pretty long time now how has your relationship to acting changed the lines are more frightening now No, no. I mean, I'd like to think I know a lot more at 70 years old than I knew at 22. And enjoy the ride. I enjoy it.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
I appreciate it more, that's for sure. What do you appreciate about it? Just being alive. That alone, you know... Somebody said to considering how, I shouldn't even say it. Say it. What did he say? Considering how long you're dead, you're here a relatively short period of time. So for me, that means take full advantage of it and don't take moments for granted.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
In light of all that's going on in our world, in light of all that's going on in our state, California, in our city specifically, it's just a play. I'm grateful for the opportunity, but when put in perspective, it's just a play.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
You know, no, just as a spectator and just being amazed, first of all, just the scope and size and devastation. And then hearing all about a lot of people in our industry, you know, who've been affected. you know, Pacific, uh, Palisades and just unbelievable and just, uh, just unbelievable.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Yeah, it has changed the city already. How so? Well, it just will never be the same. You know, the scars, the stories, the testimonies that thousands of people have now, the loss of life and of property and memories. And it was, it is an equal opportunity destroyer from richest to poorest. It is. It's a sad thing.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
No, it doesn't make me want to live somewhere else.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Yeah, it changed my perspective. Like, shoot, they got to go where to school? It costs how much? How much do clothes cost? Yeah, it changed everything.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Yeah. When I learned about my favorite uncle, my least favorite uncle, my Uncle Sam, that was the eye-opener. I'm like, what? He takes what? You mean from go? He gets how much? What did he do? You know, that's the reality of it. And a dollar is not a dollar. It's about 40 cents by the time you're an agent, lawyer, business manager, Uncle Sam, everybody else gets finished with you.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
The dollar's about 38 cents, and that's what it is. So you gotta cobble those 38 cents together to make a dollar, a real dollar.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
No, no, I'm asking because I... I was about to answer it. Okay, yeah. I've taken every job for money. Okay.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
I don't even want the money. My kids, we'll work it out. We'll homeschool them. You're breaking my heart.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Yeah, probably. Especially Virtuosity. I had some bills to pay. Ricochet was more like venturing down that road for the first time. The action movie road. Yeah, the action movie road, which I didn't really know. Virtuosity definitely had something to do with tuition. I'm sure.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
I mean, I imagine they got jobs before I knew they were in the business. John David was reading for Ballers and I didn't even know about it because he was working with his mom. Paul Letta didn't tell me. So he got the job before I knew about it.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Because I probably would have told everybody or blown it or done something because I talk too much. Your wife, Paula, is an actress. Yes. And singer and concert pianist, child prodigy. Van Cliburn, are you familiar with the Van Cliburn competition?
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
Yeah, my wife was a Van Cliburn competitor. Juilliard, North Carolina School of the Arts, the whole... I married up.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
That it's an art. You know, that it's an art. Acting just sort of chose me and I got going and all good. But she's an artist. I never looked at myself that way. And I just learned a lot about it. The discipline of it, the appreciation of it from her.
The Daily
'The Interview': Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose
I try not to look at myself, period. Look at myself. I got no time for that. I'm not much for reflection.
The Daily
'The Interview': Digital Drugs Have Us Hooked. Dr. Anna Lembke Sees a Way Out.
I've taken every job for money. There's no job I've taken where I went, you know what? You guys just keep the money. I'm just so happy. I'm just so glad to be an actor. I don't even want the money.