Denzel Washington Once Felt the Movie He Was Most Proud of Was Buried by the Film Studio
Actor Denzel Washington has starred in many memorable movies in the course of his long acting career. But he felt the film he held closest to his heart might have been hurt due to studio interference.
Denzel Washington once starred in the biopic ‘The Hurricane’
1999 saw Denzel Washington cast in The Hurricane. The film was a retelling of real-life middleweight boxer Rubin Carter who was wrongly convicted of murder in 1967, but was later acquitted in 1985. Washington first took notice of Carter’s story when he read the boxer’s book, The Sixteenth Round, which Carter wrote while in prison.
“John Ketcham, one of the producers of the film, brought the book, The Sixteenth Round, to my attention. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I just thought it was a fascinating and – in the case of this film – an incomplete book,” Washington once said according to The Guardian.
This prompted the Oscar-winner to fly to Toronto to meet with Carter. Washington asserted that he thought Carter was going to be bitter when they’d first meet. But the late boxer was far from it.
“I met this sweet, little guy who will tell you to this day that he wouldn’t change a thing; that everything that has happened to him has made him a better person, and made him the person that he is today,” he said.
Denzel Washington once felt the movie studio buried ‘The Hurricane’
Washington put in a lot of work to prepare to step into the shoes of Carter. This included getting to know the former boxer, which revealed how much the two had in common.
“And then I spent a lot of time just talking with Rubin and he walked me through his past and how those agencies and individuals affected him in his life. So I just related to the experiences I had and draw from the experiences he told me about to try and shape the character,” he said.
Washington’s work in the film didn’t go entirely unnoticed. Although he didn’t win, he received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role due to his performance. But the film wasn’t nominated for any other Academy Awards. The movie also earned a modest $74 million at the box-office compared to its $50 million budget according to IMDb.
In a resurfaced interview with Total Film, Washington was a bit disappointed that The Hurricane didn’t perform as well as he’d hoped. Especially since he had great pride in the movie. But the Training Day actor felt the studio was at fault for the way the movie was received.
“The studio didn’t release it properly and it got buried. They were trying too hard to position it for the Oscars and they wound up hurting the movie. But I think it’s one of those films whose reputation will gain over time. It’s the one I’m most proud of, right up there with Malcolm X,” Washington said.
Why Denzel Washington believed ‘The Hurricane’ didn’t receive any Oscars
There was speculation that The Hurricane displayed certain inaccuracies in its story that impeded its chances of Oscar glory. But the Flight actor also theorized that the film focused on a subject that might have been too sensitive for audiences and the Academy.
“The film was touchy because people were murdered and a lot of people felt that Rubin did it. So you’re opening old wounds. Malcolm X was more dangerous, but Hurricane might have been more controversial,” Washington once told Entertainment Weekly.
