The RTÉ Guide’s Michael Doherty travels to London to meet double Oscar-winning actor, Denzel Washington.
He may be just about the coolest actor around but boy is Denzel Washington melting today. It’s one of the muggiest days of the year and the normally unflappable actor is ensconced in an upmarket hotel with an air conditioning system that dates back to Edwardian times. On being ushered into his room, I’m greeted by the unusual sight of a double Oscar-winner standing in front of a grill flapping his t-shirt in an attempt to generate some airflow. Meanwhile, the make-up girl in the corner of the room is eyeing the actor’s ever-dampening brow with some alarm and somewhere on a lower floor a porter has been hastily dispatched to get his hands on a fan.
In fairness to Denzel, he just smiles and takes everything in his stride. Taller looking than his accredited six foot one, and younger than his accredited 54 years, the actor has the air of a man without a care in the world. And why wouldn’t he? After all, Denzel Washington is at the very top of his game. He’s an A-list topping actor who commands respect wherever he goes, not to mention a whopping $20 million pay-cheque for each movie he undertakes. Off-screen, Denzel has been part of one of Hollywood’s most famously stable marriages for almost twenty years; he first met his wife, Pauletta, on the set of the TV movie, Wilma, in 1977, and they have four children ageing in range from 19 to 26.
The actor is in muggy London to promote his latest film, 'Unstoppable', in which he plays a veteran locomotive engineer called upon (in tandem with young gun Chris Pine) to stop an unmanned train loaded with toxic chemicals from destroying a Pennsylvania city. It marks the actor’s fifth screen collaboration with director Tony Scott, which leads neatly into the opening question:
Michael Doherty: You’re a guy who gets first refusal on a lot of scripts so what needs to be in a script for you to get excited, and what is it about Tony Scott that does the trick so often?
Denzel Washington: I don’t get a whole lot, actually: I get fewer scripts than you think! Any time I get a chance to work with Tony then that’s a script I’m going to take a serious look at. I knew he was excited about Unstoppable and he had a really interesting take on it. For example, the film he put together is much more exciting than the original script that I read so we just work well together and I already look forward to the next opportunity.
Is there almost a short-hand in place between you guys now?
Yes, and because we work so well together I trust him and I don’t worry about what he is doing. I can just concentrate on my own job. Sometimes you work with someone less experienced or whatever and you don’t feel as comfortable. With Tony, I worry about the acting and let him worry about the directing.
That said, he didn’t get a stunt man but had you, a double Oscar-winning actor of thirty years experience, running on top of a train carriage for one celebrated sequence!
Hmm, yes! I told him; don’t send me any skyscraper scripts. I’m not doing it! That was me up on top of the train running, though some of the stuff I couldn’t do for insurance reasons. The stunt guy that doubled for me was nuts; he was running up there sometimes without any cable. I said to him, ‘Look, don’t be a hero!’
Was it a tough shoot in general?
It was sad in some ways. There was a scene we shot in Brewster, Ohio, and they needed fifty extras and two thousand people showed up. It was where the old Firestone plants were. All the steel mills and coalmines are there and a lot of folks are out of work. We were in Bradford, New York and Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio, just real America. I’ve never been to that part of America before.
The movie is loosely inspired by true events. Did you meet any of the men who might have had similar experiences?
Yeah, we met two guys who actually did this sort of thing. They were living their normal lives and were very happy with their work, but in those ordinary lives they had the opportunity to do something extraordinary and became the better for it.
You’ve very much specialized in these everyman roles.
That was certainly a theme in the last two films I’ve done with Tony, that I’m a regular guy. I’m an actor, that’s my job, but that’s not who I am, that’s what I do for a living. I take my work seriously but I don’t take myself too seriously. I guess that comes across. I don’t mind playing the guy who’s less than perfect, like in the case of Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. I put on weight and I had them make my clothes a little tight. He’s a little overweight and spills coffee on himself, but then he’s thrust into these unusual circumstances and that’s sort of the case here, too.
How is it for you to get to play these different characters?
I have a great job. I did The Book of Eli and got the chance to train with one of the greatest martial artists in the world, Danny Inosanto, who was a contemporary of Bruce Lee. Then I turn around and get on a freight train in Ohio and I learn how to drive a train. I actually drove the train for thirty or forty miles, unhitched it, put it in reverse, hitched it up with another train, pulled that one out and took it up the tracks.
So what still engages you about the action genre?
I know it’s going to be a good ride, especially with Tony. Plus, it affords me the opportunity to do other things that I like to do, like direct and do theatre. In this day and age, with how much films cost, you have to do something that’s popular. I’d love to do a film about two guys sitting around in a hotel room talking, but you’re going to make five dollars! Tony and I developed the character in Unstoppable and it became about what was going on in that part of the country. There are a lot of parts of the country where people are being pushed out from their jobs. The older guys are getting pushed out by these younger guys who are making less money taking our jobs. I guess the same will happen in the movie business eventually, too.
Does that mean you see yourself being edged out?
Well, I’m starting to play the older guy who’s getting edged out!
So who’s the new Denzel?
Two of my favorite black actors are British. Idris Elba and Chewitel Ejiofor are two of the bright young stars in film.
What’s the best advice you can give young actors?
Take your work seriously but don’t take yourself too seriously. Get on the stage as often as possible; that’s where an actor really learns how to act. All the actors that I really admired growing up or as a young actor were all from the theatre.
You manage to juggle a lot in your life and career: big movies; scripts that you will direct yourself, documentaries for your production company; you’re famously a family man and you recently went back to Broadway and scooped a Tony. How do you keep it all together?
That’s what keeps it interesting for me; keeping all those balls in the air. I love directing; I love the theatre; that’s where I started, and I love acting in films so it’s good. If I get bored with one, I move on to another. I kind of get my jollies through theatre. I just had the opportunity to do Fences on Broadway and we broke every box office record, won all the Tony Awards and I really enjoy that. But I enjoy this, too. Fifty miles an hour running on the top of a train!
How do you think the business has changed since you started out three decades ago?
With all these big corporations that own the film companies now, it’s a lot more about the bottom line. You know, studios are more interested now in finding the next Avatar, or whatever.
Who excites you in Hollywood at the moment?
It depends. I’m excited about being surprised when I go to the movies. Surprised by a performance or by the way a director puts a film together. It’s nice to see something you haven’t seen before, speaking about Avatar. Now everybody is on that 3D bandwagon but James Cameron was first and that’s exciting.
As a final question, if I were to sit with you in this hotel room, melting, in about five years’ time, what would you like to have achieved?
I’m not really somebody who makes plans. I don’t know how I’m going to feel. I know that in the next five years I want to act in a movie; I know I want to direct and I know I want to do a play again so hopefully I will get to do all of those things. Next up I’m actually presenting the Nobel Peace Prize in December, so that’s not too shabby! I’m not getting one, I’m just presenting one, but I’m going to Israel for the first time so I have a great life. I mean, I can’t complain!
Unstoppable is in cinemas nationwide now.
Michael Doherty
