Denzel Washington Was Considered Shrewd Casting for ‘Leave the World Behind’ by the Film’s Author
Actor Denzel Washington was cast in director Sam Esmail’s Leave the World Behind before he was replaced by Mahershala Ali. Initially, however, the author of the book that inspired the feature was very intrigued by Washington in the main role.
How ‘Leave the World Behind’ author Rumaan Alam felt about the Denzel Washington casting
Director Esmail’s upcoming Leave the World Behind feature is based on the Alam novel of the same name. Although greatly inspired by the source material, Esmail shared that his movie might differ greatly from the novel. This was intentional, as Esmail didn’t want to create a complete duplicate of Alam’s work.
“I’m not a fan of making a carbon copy of the book,” Esmail said in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. “What I wanted was to create this standalone piece so that you could read the book and you could watch the movie and one wouldn’t spoil the other — that there were sort of two separate pieces and two different interpretations of the same story.”
Esmail originally took it upon himself to cast Washington in the film. There was a lot of irony in the casting that might’ve been intentional, as Alam already referenced Washington in his novel. In the book, a character by the name of Amanda Sandford likens another character to The Equalizer star. Alam explained what was going through his character’s head when she made the comparison.
“I mean Denzel Washington obviously possesses a very particular place in the culture,” Alam said in an interview with GQ. “And what she is saying in that moment is what I think a white woman of her generation would do mentally: She would sort of categorize a man of a certain age and a man of means who happened to be black and sort of good-looking into the context of Denzel Washington, right? She’s turning the moment right in front of her into this narrative that is distant from her and filing him away as this type.”
As for what he thought of Esmail actually casting Washington in the role, he seemed optimistic about the decision.
“I have no idea what Sam Esmail will do with that particular joke,” Alam said. “But I think it’s very shrewd casting because of course Denzel Washington is a genius and a brilliant performer, but I do think he exists in that space. If you were going to conjure a black man of a certain age who seems distinguished and trustworthy and handsome, and has this level of polish, you are going to think of Denzel Washington.”
‘Leave the World Behind’ would’ve seen Denzel Washington reunite with two former co-stars if he stayed on
If Washington hadn’t left the project, he would’ve found himself shooting alongside two very familiar faces. Julia Roberts was also cast in Leave the World Behind as Amanda. The two hadn’t starred in a movie since 1993’s The Pelican Brief, where Washington famously omitted a kissing scene between the two. He did so to appease his fan-base at the time, whereas Roberts was more than willing to kiss her co-star.
“I have taken so much s*** over the years about not kissing Denzel in that film. Don’t I have a pulse? Of course, I wanted to kiss Denzel. It was his idea to take the damn scenes out,” Roberts once famously told Newsweek (via The Things).
The feature also ended up casting Ethan Hawke as Roberts’ companion Clay Sandford. Washington and Hawke already worked together on Training Day and The Magnificent Seven. Leave the World Behind would’ve marked their third collaboration.
So far, neither Washington nor Esmail explained why the former left the project.
