DENZEL WASHINGTON
CINERAMA
WASHINGTON JUST WANTED TO SHOW PEOPLE WHO AND WHY THEY WERE
By PETER THOMAS BUSCH
Denzel Washington was portraying a black man wanting to be white before the character rediscovered the importance of being black when portraying Malcolm X in the Spike Lee 1992 biopic.
As the young actor’s career progressed into something called iconic, Washington chose roles in which he could be seen as neither black nor white.
Washington most of all chose film roles where he could portray different aspects of humanity regardless of the racial divide. And in the process, the actor from New York attracted a wide spectrum of devoted movie fans that went to theatres to watch another unique performance of a great American actor.
American is what Washington personifies the most, from the Academy Award winning supporting role in the Civil War drama Glory (1989) to the falsely convicted boxer, Rubin Carter, in The Hurricane (1999).
Lee has cast Denzel Washington in the leading role four times, beginning with Mo’ Better Blues (1990).
Washington eventually moved to Los Angeles and chose one of his greatest movie roles yet, portraying a corrupt undercover Los Angeles police detective working both sides of narcotics.
The stunning performance in Training Day (2001), with Ethan Hawke in a supporting role as a white rookie detective on his first day working undercover, broke from Washington’s usual acting form by increasing the spectrum of emotions and showing the range of an experienced talented actor.
Playing a bad cop was literally and figuratively out of character for Washington who normally plays community role models and biopic characters to whom audiences would naturally aspire.
Training Day shows how corruption is not limited to white or black or poor and rich but occupies a subtle line through society from which humanity often falters.
Washington reprises the bad character role as New York drug trafficker Frank Lucas in the biopic American Gangster (2007).
Washington’s natural acting style draws audiences in for the genuine feeling of connection with the characters he is portraying. This connection is enhanced when the iconic leading actor uses realism when depicting such characters as the defiant lawyer representing the AIDS victim dismissed from his star role at an established law firm in Philadelphia (1993) and the determined sophisticated journalist in the Pelican Brief (1993).
Actors must at first take what work they are offered, but after achieving a certain amount of success and financial independence, actors are able to pick and choose roles. That subsequent career path reflects the art the actor has chosen to contribute to the community.
Washington worked along the way beside Hollywood’s most talented actors such as Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Gene Hackman, Ethan Hawke, Meryl Streep, Russell Crowe and Viola Davis, and with the great directors of his time such as Spike Lee, Norman Jewison, Allan J. Pakula, Tony Scott and Ridley Scott.
In Fences (2016) Washington acts in the leading role as well as directs the film. Viola Davis won the Oscar for a supporting role, while Washington picked up nominations for acting and directing, while the film was nominated for best picture.
While Lee used cinema to portray a more realistic black personality to audiences as far away as possible from cliché and stereotypes that had typically been created by white directors, Washington showed the world that what was important was what you did and doing those things with integrity.
Denzel Washington attempted to relate to people regardless of colour.
Washington has played a freedom fighter, a train conductor, a school teacher, an alcoholic pilot, a transit control officer and more often than not biopic characters or near enough historically accurate characters, as opposed to fictitious characters within a script driven by fantasy for commercial purposes.
Washington asked audiences why did that happen? Why are you like that?
Denzel Washington His Films and Career, by Douglas Brode, Toronto: Carol Publishing Group, 1996.
