Spike Lee Felt His Bond With This Actor Was Similar to His Bond With Denzel Washington
Actor Denzel Washington and filmmaker Spike Lee have been known to work together on films like Malcolm X and Inside Man. Their frequent collaborations helped form a close bond between the two. But there’s another well-known actor who Lee feels he’s bonded with on a slightly similar level.
Spike Lee compared his bond with Denzel Washington to this other actor
Washington and Lee have one of cinema’s most notable actor-director relationships. The pair first came together in the 1990 film Mo’ Better Blues. Lee immediately pictured Washington in the lead role of the film after seeing how women responded to the Oscar-winner.
“Before I wrote one word of Mo’ Better Blues, I knew I wanted Denzel Washington to play the lead,” Washington once told Entertainment Weekly. “In the fall of ’88, Denzel was starring on Broadway in Checkmates with Ruby Dee and Paul Winfield. I went to see the play a couple of times. The minute Denzel appeared on stage, the women in the audience started to scream. Not only was Denzel a great actor, he was a legitimate matinee idol. I wanted to write a role for Denzel that black women were waiting for him to play.”
Since then, Washington and Lee have done more than a few films together, cementing their bond. But Lee’s friendship with Washington recently reminded him of a bond he had with another actor. Lee has been working with Breaking Bad star Giancarlo Esposito ever since School Daze. From there, the filmmaker and Esposito have almost collaborated as much as Lee and Washington. Together, they filmed works like Do the Right Thing, Mo’ Better Blues, and Malcolm X. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lee opened up about his experiences working with Esposito.
“When you’re close, especially in this industry, there might be Spike the love, but there are schedules and delays that prevent working together again,” Lee said. “But we have a bond. It’s been announced that I’m going to do my new film with [Denzel Washington], the fifth one after Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X, He Got Game, Inside Man. Inside Man was 16 years ago, but for Denzel and I, it was like yesterday. That’s the same thing here with my brother. That creative bond, that human bond, even when you’re not working together or you haven’t seen each other in years, when you do, it’s a big hug like you saw them last night.”
Why Spike Lee was convinced Denzel Washington was the most intelligent actor on Earth
Lee wasn’t only impressed by Washington’s skills as an actor, but also his smarts. He saw what the Oscar winner was capable of in the feature Malcolm X, where he played the civil rights leader. Lee saw firsthand what Washington was willing to do to honor Malcolm X’s legacy.
“There was no pork on his fork and no alcohol,” Lee once said on The National News. “He learnt how to pray in Arabic and he studied the Quran and that’s because he is the most intelligent actor on this earth, in my opinion. There are many biopics, but just because you talk and look like the subject, that is only the surface. Denzel knew that his body is a vessel. And if he did the work, that somehow the spirit of Malcom X would come through him. But again, that only came through the work.”
Spike Lee and Giancarlo Esposito always come back together after falling out with each other
In a 2012 interview with BET, Esposito opened up about what Lee has meant to him and his career. The Boys star confided that he and Lee haven’t always seen eye-to-eye. But the pair have maintained a level of respect for one another, and he’s grateful for Lee’s influence on his career.
“I’m in deep gratitude to Spike for having cast me in his films,” he said. “We’ve fallen out and come back together and fallen out. But no matter what, we’ve been friends for a long time. He’s been a role model in many, many ways for me. Spike’s personal journey is not mine, but I respect what he does politically and he keeps people aware. He’s somewhat of a provocateur. He’s an icon; he’s changed things for people. Spike has moved us as African-Americans and as human beings to a new level and I respect him and love him for it. I hope that you print that because I certainly do think the world of him.”
