Actor Denzel Washington pretty much goes through similar thought processes when choosing what new movie to lead. When considering his options, however, Washington asserted that he’s often not trying to pick roles based solely on the black community’s preferences.
Denzel Washington takes a very personal approach when picking film roles
Washington learned early on to avoid doing films just for money. If he focused more on his potential salary for movies above anything else, his acting career might’ve looked much different. He was tempted to go against his beliefs when he was offered to do a comedy for more money than he’d seen at one time. But Washington had doubts about the film’s material, and eventually Sidney Poitier convinced him to reject the offer.
“My career is based on saying no,” Washington once told The Talk. “Sidney Poitier told me many, many years ago that the first four or five movies that you do will determine how you’re perceived in the business. So I was very blessed that the second movie I did was with Norman Jewison, the third movie I did was with Sidney Lumet, and the fourth movie I did was Cry Freedom with Richard Attenborough, for which I was nominated for the first time. I was off to the races. There were other movies that I could have done and I didn’t do.”
Washington continues to follow the late Poitier’s advice. When it comes to figuring out what projects to do, the Flight star also relies on his own instincts over what he feels African-Americans might want to see from him.
“Acting is my job. I work hard at it,” Washington once told USA Today. “If people appreciate my work, I appreciate that. But I don’t do what I think the [Black] community wants, because I don’t know what they want. . . . I do something because I’m interested in it. It’s more personal.”
Apart from Washington’s own preferences, the Glory star asserted that he also picks film roles based on his faith. Even if he’s playing a villain.
“But my faith has always informed the roles I choose. Always. I’ve always been led by God, and most of my performances are faith filled. Even if I was playing the devil. I still have my shooting script from Training Day, and I wrote on the cover: ‘The wages of sin is death.’ The wages of sin is death. And now all these years later in Gladiator II,I play another bad guy in another great movie,” he said not too long ago in an Esquire interview.
Denzel Washington believed the power of saying no led to his success
Washington might’ve turned down as many movies as he’s starred in, if not more so. Out of all the projects he’s done, there are only two movies he’s publicly regretted doing.
“Seven and Michael Clayton,” Washington once told GQ. “With Clayton, it was the best material I had read in a long time, but I was nervous about a first-time director, and I was wrong. It happens.”
For the Hurricane actor, he advised other potential stars to recognize the value in saying no.
“Well, I think actors always have the ultimate power, the power to say “no”. I think one of the reasons I am standing here right now is because of the roles that I didn’t do. We do have control over what we do and if you compromise, you will be compromised. I try to have a certain level of integrity in what I have done,” Washington once said according to Black Film.
