Denzel Washington’s Son Convinced Him to Play a Couple of His Few Bad Guy Roles
Actor Denzel Washington hasn’t played too many villains in his various films . But two of his famous famous villain roles were characters his son helped persuade him to do.
How John David Washington convinced Denzel Washington to play two villain roles
Washington has played a wide variety of roles, but some of his most memorable characters were his villains. His performance as Alonzo Harris in Training Day earned Washington his second Oscar win, and his first for Best Actor. But it was also a role that his son, John David, wanted Washington to do as well.
“He really pushed me to do three films,” Washington once told Female. “The other two were completely different. But he’s the one who really pushed me to do Training Day. He said, because you’ve never done anything like that.”
The other villain role that Washington did because of his son was American Gangster, where Washington played the vicious drug kingpin Frank Lucas.
But John David didn’t read scripts just for the sake of giving his father career advice.
“I wanted him to read more so I started giving him scripts to read. All my children are movie buffs,” Washington said.
Denzel Washington was taught to never play the ‘bad guy’ in his earlier days
After getting a taste of what it was like playing a villain, Washington seemed to enjoy portraying villains than he did heroes. Speaking to ET (via Digital Spy), Washington explained that playing villains came with more flexibility.
“It’s cliche to say, but bad guys have more fun. You can get away with more,” he said. “In playing a real character who’s heroic, you’re kind of stuck. There’s only so much you can get away with. But [the] bad guy can say anything.”
This was why he shared he had an extremely good time being in his Training Day character’s shoes. It was a type of role that he spent years vying for.
“It’s a huge honour and privilege to play real-life heroes, but there is a different kind of excitement and reward for an actor in playing a villain. I have to admit I had a lot of fun playing Harris in Training Day. [He is an] arrogant thief, liar, killer and egomaniac. He’s a sick, sick man who has no heart. I’ve known for a while now that I’ve wanted to play someone like Harris,” he said in a separate Female interview.
Washington shared that he had little trouble getting in and out the head-space of his darker characters. But he was taught in theater that, even if he was to play a villain, he couldn’t think of them that way.
“As an actor in the theater you’re taught that you never play a bad guy. You have to love who you are. You can’t say, ‘Oh, I’m a bad guy,’” he once told The Talk. “How do you play that?”
Denzel Washington was offered nothing but bad guy roles after ‘Training Day’
If there might have been any con that came with playing bad guys, it was that Washington was offered more villain roles. But Washington was already used to being categorized as certain character-types after giving a performance.
“It’s just the nature of this business. First I was Biography Man. ‘Steve Biko? Get Biography Man! Malcolm X? Biography Man! Remember the Titans? Biography Man! Hurricane? Get Biography Man! Then all of a sudden somebody slipped up and sent them Training Day. ‘Bad Guy Man! Get Bad Guy Man!’ I think that’s just the nature of the business,” he said.
His role in American Gangster was very much a reminder of his Training Day character.
“I wasn’t hesitant at all. A good story is a good story,” Washington once told CBS News. “I just think that before Training Day, I hadn’t been offered that kind of role. After Training Day, that was all I was offered.”
