Denzel Washington’s Response to Which Actor is the ‘Next Denzel’ in Hollywood
Actor Denzel Washington was someone several younger stars like Ethan Hawke looked up to. Given his cinematic legacy, it’s easy to see why he’s served as an inspiration for so many later generations of actors as well. But who, if anyone, would Washington consider to be the next him?
What Denzel Washington has said about the ‘next Denzel’
Washington already knew how influential role models could be. Years prior to becoming one himself, the Training Day star looked up to the late Sidney Poitier. Back in Washington’s youth, there weren’t too many African-American stars at the time. Poitier was one of the only black stars for Washington to learn from.
“You know, when I started acting, which was twenty-three years ago in 1975, that’s when I started really looking at his work and studying him because again, there was nobody to look at that looked like me,” he once told PBS. “I mean, you had, you know, people who danced and women who cleaned other people’s houses.”
Additionally, Washington also mentioned the late James Earl Jones as one of his inspirations. Afterwards, it seems Washington’s career has come around full circle, as nowadays he’s become the idol younger stars look to for guidance. It was a realization that might not have hit him as hard as it did when he won the Oscar for Best Actor in Training Day. When he scored the prize in 2002, another younger actor let Washington know how much the win meant to him.
“’When you didn’t win for Malcolm X and The Hurricane, we saw those moments as if you can’t win, then what chance do we have?’” Washington recalled the actor telling him in an interview with Variety.
The Deja Vu star admitted that the conversation opened his mind up to something he hadn’t considered before.
“I never thought of it that way. I was only thinking of myself,” he said.
Since Washington, Hollywood has seen a number of younger Black actors emerge. And as Washington himself gets older and closer to retirement, many wonder which actor in the next generation might be the next him. But a ‘next Denzel’ is a notion that Washington doesn’t seem to agree with.
“What does the next Denzel mean? Does that mean there can only be one? It doesn’t have to be one person,” he said.
The actor who Denzel Washington said he passed the baton to
If Washington did have a torch, he once claimed that he’d already passed it off. That honor went to none other than Michael B. Jordan, who has successfully been one of Hollywood’s biggest A-listers for years. Jordan has even come across fans who have directly compared him to Washington, which caught the Black Panther star off guard.
“When someone says you’re like your idol,” Jordan said in an interview with BET. “It’s like: ‘Really? You see that in me?’ I’d only done that one movie. But then I started using it as motivation. I wanted to pop up on Denzel’s radar. He’s the O.G. If I could get recognition from him, I know I’m going down the right path, you know?”
Washington, who was with Jordan at the time of the interview, also shared his own enthusiasm over the younger actor’s accomplishments.
“And here we are, Mike! Looks like it’s working out already,” Washington said.
Washington and Jordan came together for the movie A Journal for Jordan, which was the last feature Washington directed. Working with the actor up close, Jordan became one of many younger African American stars Washington felt compelled to mentor.
“The way I see it, I’m in the service business now,” he said. “I’m here to serve God, my family and young people of color in our business.”
He further confided that passing the baton was one of the main reasons why he hadn’t retired from the film industry just yet.
“That’s why I’m here! That’s why I’m still in the race,” he said. “And I’m passing the baton. What a lot of people don’t know is: When you pass the baton, you keep running behind the other runner, you don’t just stop. I’m like, ‘Make the turn, bring it home!’ I like helping people, I want to see them do well.”
