Denzel Washington feels as if he’s much more the product of the theatre of a than a Hollywood movie star.
On Sunday (Mar. 23), the two-time Academy Award winner broached the subject on CBS’ New Sunday Morning while promoting his latest turn on Broadway—William Shakespeare’s Othello. Washington, last seen on the Great White Way in 2018’s The Iceman Cometh plays the most famous black man in classical drama with Jake Gyllenhaal joining him as the treacherous Iago. The 70-year old explained the nuance;
“I’m a stage actor who does film; it’s not the other way around,” Washington added. “I did stage first. I learned how to act on stage, not on film. Movies are a filmmaker’s medium. You shoot it, and then you’re gone, and they cut it together and add music and do all of that. Theater is an actor’s medium. The curtain goes up, nobody can help you.”
Later in the conversation, the Equalizer actor discussed the dream come true it was to play the gullible lover in a show that hasn’t been on Broadway in over 40 years. Washington explained that it was also an opportunity to show love to his “hero,” James Earl Jones, who starred in that last iteration in 1982.
“James Earl Jones was my northern star when I was in college,” he explained. “He was who I wanted to be. I didn’t get to see his Othello, but I know it wasn’t as good as my 22-year-old interpretation. But you know, it’s my turn.”
“I know a lot less now,” Washington added. “I thought I knew everything then. I didn’t really like the part, ’cause I wasn’t wise enough to understand it. Now I understand it’s really about a bond, you know, that these characters have. He loves not wisely, but too well.”
Watch the interview above.
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