Denzel Washington - Actor (PDFDrive)

F E RG U S O N
CARE E R B I O G R APH I E S
DENZEL
WASHINGTON
Actor
James Robert Parish

Denzel Washington: Actor
Copyright © 2005 by Facts On File, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Parish, James Robert.

Denzel Washington, actor / James Robert Parish.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8160-5829-6 (hc: alk. paper)
1. Washington, Denzel, 1954– 2. Actors—United States—Biography. I. Title.
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CONTENTS
1 A Man with a Purpose 1
2 Beginnings 7
3 Paying His Dues 19
4 A March to Glory 33
5 Malcolm X 48
6 The Box-Office Winner 60
7 Maintaining the Pace 67
Time Line 82
How to Become an Actor 86
To Learn More about Actors 100
How to Become a Producer 104
To Learn More about Producers 114
To Learn More about Denzel Washington 116
Index 119
1
A MAN WITH
A PURPOSE
At the 74th Annual Academy Awards ceremony on March
24, 2002, veteran performer Sidney Poitier, the first
African-American actor to win a Best Actor Oscar (for
1963’s Lilies of the Field), received an honorary Oscar “for
his extraordinary performances and unique presence on
the screen” and for “representing the motion picture
industry with dignity, style, and intelligence throughout
the world.” The award was presented by Denzel Washing-
ton. Later that evening, Halle Berry became the first
African-American woman to win a Best Actress Oscar (for
her performance in Monster’s Ball). That same night, Den-
zel Washington strode to the podium to receive a Best
Actor Oscar for his role as a rogue cop in the thriller Train-
ing Day.
Washington was the first African American to win the
Academy Award for Best Actor since Poitier’s Oscar victory
1
2 • Denzel Washington: Actor
in 1963. Acknowledging this very important accomplish-

ment, Washington good-naturedly told the audience, “Forty
years I’ve been chasing Sidney, and what do they do? They
give him one on the same night. But there’s nothing I’d
rather do, sir.”
An Actor’s Actor
Denzel Washington does not want to be known as a black
actor. Although he is extremely proud of his black heritage
and appreciative of the growing opportunities for racial
minorities in post-1960s Hollywood, he would rather be
known as an actor. As he once explained to the Los Ange-
les Times, “Black is not all I am. That’s my cultural histor-
ical background, my genetic makeup, but it’s not all of
who I am, nor is it the basis from which I answer every
question.”
In shaping his screen career, Denzel has frequently
rejected lucrative parts that may have pigeonholed him in
stereotypical ethnic roles (e.g., pimps, drug addicts, gang-
sters). Instead, Denzel has sought out acting parts that
are not color specific, such as the investigative reporter in
The Pelican Brief (1993) or the quadriplegic homicide
detective in The Bone Collector (1999). This ambitious
actor has been determined to utilize his acting talents and
good looks to become a versatile leading man. He has
become known in the filmmaking industry and to the
A Man with a Purpose • 3
filmgoing public as a fine performer, and not one qualified

by the color of his skin.
However, in his more than 20 years of filmmaking,
Denzel has not shied away from playing roles written
specifically for African-American characters. He has taken
several of these roles because of the creative challenges
that they presented. He has played a South African mar-
tyr in Cry Freedom (1987); an ex-slave who joins the Union
Army in the Civil War story Glory (1989), a part for which
he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar; an ill-fated cham-
pionship boxer in The Hurricane (1999); and an African-
American high-school football coach fighting for the inte-
gration of his squad in Remember the Titans (2000).
Over the years Washington has also often teamed with
distinguished black filmmaker Spike Lee for African
American–themed film projects: Mo’ Better Blues (1990),
Malcolm X (1992), and He Got Game (1998). Then in the
feature film Antwone Fisher (2002), the first film that Den-
zel directed, he chose to tell the true-life story of a young
black sailor whose emotional problems were the by-prod-
ucts of a troubled childhood. Denzel also produced and co-
starred in the film.
Denzel is a dedicated craftsman who believes “I’m not
a movie star in my own perception, I’m an actor. Movie
star belongs to the people, not to me.” Washington is a
very private man who shies away from media attention.
Nevertheless, he insists, “I think I’m a lot more open about

my private life than some people in this business. I may
not be an open book, but I think people know as much
about me as they need to know.”
Although named by People magazine as one of Holly-
wood’s “Most Beautiful People” and the “Sexiest Man
Alive,” 6-foot, 185-pound Denzel is cautious about what
his characters will do on screen. He has always been
awkward about movie love scenes and has refused to do
any on-camera disrobing. He explains, “I am a little old-
fashioned . . . I believe less is more.” The modest man
also reasons, “Do I think people want to hear me say
I’m sexy? Why do you want me to say it myself? It’s
embarrassing.”
Publicity-shy Washington is also levelheaded about his
high standing in the film industry. He acknowledges, “It’s
always been a nice, steady climb for me, and I feel pretty
lucky about that.” Yet he candidly says of his professional
training and his shrewd role-picking, “Luck is where
opportunity meets preparation.”
Part of Denzel’s success as a screen star is due his rep-
utation as an actor’s actor. Martin Stellman, who guided
Denzel through the British-made For Queen and Country
(1988), observed, “He’s almost minimalist in his expres-
sions and gestures and movement, yet he still manages to
A Man with a Purpose • 5
be powerful and charismatic on the screen.” Another film-

maker, Edward Zwick—who directed Washington in such
features as 1989’s Glory and 1996’s Courage under Fire and
—has said, “Working with an actor like Denzel is like steer-
ing a Maserati compared to steering a Dodge. You don’t
have to crank the wheel—you make an adjustment of two
degrees, and he takes off like a shot, coming up with
something original and fresh.”
Distinguished actor Morgan Freeman, who co-starred
with Denzel in Glory, has remarked that Washington does
incredible amounts of research to burrow into a screen
characterization. “He’s intimidating that way,” Freeman
details. “When Denzel gets there he’s there, but he arrives
there by a lot of effort.”
A Religious Family Man

While Washington is highly career-oriented—often to the
point of being a workaholic—he has not allowed his
superstar status to overwhelm his perspective on life. His
two biggest grounding forces are his family (his long-time
wife Pauletta and their four children) and his religion. As
the son of a Pentecostal minister, Denzel has strong reli-
gious beliefs and practices, which include reading the
Daily Word (a monthly publication offering daily spiritual
inspiration and practical help through inspirational
stories and prayer) and

weekly churchgoing. He
has said, “God is my hero.”
Wanting to share his
financial good fortune,
Washington—who com-
mands $20 million per
film—devotes a good deal
of time and money to wor-
thy charities, especially
those that support the
black community. His
Denzel holds the Academy causes of choice have
Award for Best Actor, which he included the Boys and
received for his role in Training
Girls Clubs of America,
Day. (Associated Press)
Nelson Mandela’s Chil-
dren’s Fund, and a $2.5 million gift to rebuild the West
Angeles Church of God in Christ (which the Washingtons
attend).
2
BEGINNINGS
Denzel Washington Jr. was born on December 28, 1954, in
Mount Vernon, New York, a middle-class community just
north of Manhattan. Denzel (pronounced Den-ZELL) was
the second of three children (he has an older sister,
Lorice, and, a younger brother, David) of Reverend Den-
zel Washington and his wife, Lennis.
Denzel’s father, a Pentecostal minister from Virginia,
worked two jobs to help support his family. He was
employed at the local water utility company and at S.
Klein, a department store. On Sundays, he preached to his
congregation, which often consisted only of family mem-
bers and one or two other parishioners. Denzel’s mother,
originally from Georgia, was a former gospel singer who
operated a beauty parlor that eventually grew into a chain
of shops.
In the still racially segregated United States of the mid-
1950s, Mount Vernon was an unusual town, where a racially
mixed population of locals lived in relative harmony. When
7
Denzel later recalled growing up in Mount Vernon, he

described: “My friends were West Indians, blacks, Irish, Ital-
ians, so I learned a lot of different cultures.” Said the actor,
“It was a good background for someone in my business.” He
has termed his hometown “the safest and best community
on the planet.”
Guiding Influences
The Washingtons led a financially stable existence, thanks
to the parents’ strong work ethic, which they instilled in
their children as well. Because of the Reverend’s two jobs,
he left home early in the morning and didn’t return until
late at night. As a result, Denzel and his siblings saw little
of their father during the week and never really got to
know him as a person. However, on Sundays, at the Rev-
erend’s church, the children experienced their father’s
passionate sermonizing, which created a strong religious
base in their lives.
As a clergyman, Denzel Sr. had a strong sense of moral-
ity. He kept tight control over outside influences that
might affect his children. In the Washington household,
swearing, drinking, and smoking were strictly forbidden.
Denzel Sr. also believed that many Hollywood movies dis-
played loose morals, and he decided what films his chil-
dren could watch. As a result, except for the few occasions
when they sneaked off to see an action picture at a local
Beginnings • 9
cinema, the Washington children were limited to viewing

religious epics such as King of Kings (1961) or Disney ani-
mated features.
The equally hard-working Mrs. Washington provided
the children with daily guidance. Denzel later admitted
that she was an effective authority figure who, like her
exacting husband, believed in strict discipline. Whenever
Denzel was tempted to do anything wrong, he knew that
if he took such a misstep “my mother would kill me!”
That deterrent helped to keep Denzel and his siblings out
of major scrapes.
One of Denzel’s favorite childhood haunts was the Boys
Club in Mount Vernon, which he began attending when
he was just six years old. There he could safely hang out
and talk with friends, play basketball and football, plan
camping trips, and so forth. Denzel’s mentor at the Boys
Club was the Club’s director, Billy Thomas. Washington—
now a national spokesperson for the Boys and Girls
Clubs—says it was Thomas “who taught by example and
challenged me to achieve my potential in life.” Denzel
adds, “I know that without his guidance and direction I
would not be where I am today.”
Washington also acknowledges the role of one of the
Club’s counselors, Charles White. Denzel explains, “To do
anything, you have to believe in yourself. Somebody has
to give you that encouragement. Charles White was
always telling us, ‘You can do anything you want!’ That

stuck.” (As Denzel grew into a teenager, he would become
a counselor’s aide at the Club’s summer camp.)
By the time Denzel was 10 years old, he was part of a
new busing program to promote racial integration. He
and his siblings now attended classes at a school on the
other side of town. Although their new school was largely
white, Denzel never felt out of place because his parents
had taught him and his siblings to always be proud.
When Denzel was 12, his daily routine also included
working part time at a local barbershop that his mother
co-owned. There he would help clean up, use the whisk
broom on customers after a haircut, or run errands, such
as taking patrons’ clothes to a nearby cleaner. Washington
grew to love the tips he received for his efforts, leading
him to say, “Everybody looked like a dollar bill to me.”
This work experience, which allowed him to earn his own
spending money, gave him a sense of independence. The
job also taught him the value and power of money, lessons
that have remained with him throughout life.
Already good-looking, the fast-growing Denzel was a
good athlete and was becoming the object of girls’ atten-
tion. However, he was extremely shy (and especially
self-conscious about the gap between his two front
teeth), so he was generally unaware of his appeal to the
opposite sex.
Beginnings • 11
A Family Calamity
When Denzel was 14, his relatively serene world col-
lapsed. His parents split and soon divorced, with his
father returning to Virginia. The trauma of the divorce
shook Denzel to the core. In reaction, he said later, “I
rejected everything,” including religion. The once well-
mannered youth became unmanageable. He began asso-
ciating with disreputable characters and was full of such
rage that, as he has recalled, he began “beating people up
in school.”
While Denzel was definitely out of control, his upbring-
ing—especially his mother’s influence—and good luck
prevented him from getting into confrontations with the
police or into other major trouble that could have handi-
capped him. “My mother stuck by me so much. She
would come out in the street and embarrass me. We’d be
out there arguing in the street and she would come and
get me.”
As Washington further described, “When it came down
to the moment of should I go this way or do that, I’d think
about her and say, ‘Nah, let me get myself outta here
before I get into trouble.’ I think I was more of an actor
even back then.” Washington admits, “I was in situations
as a teenager where I could have easily ended up doing a
lot of time. That wasn’t my fate. God had another plan for
me, so I’m thankful.”
In retrospect, Washington also acknowledges that his

mom “saw to it I was exposed to a lot of [positive, cultural]
things. She couldn’t afford it, but she was very intelligent.
She is basically responsible for my success.”
A Timely Intervention
Desperate to remedy the problems in her single-family
household, Mrs. Washington scraped together enough
funds—bolstered by financial scholarships—to enroll her
two older children in boarding schools. Denzel was sent to
Oakland Academy, a prep school in upstate New York. In
this largely white school, the 100 students were required
to wear jackets and neckties to classes.
Still confused by the breakup of his parents’ marriage
and ill at ease in his new environment, Denzel put little
effort into his class work, and didn’t mind that he was an
academic underachiever. He channeled his energies into
playing sports: basketball, baseball, football, and track, as
well as participating in a local band for which he played
piano. (Washington’s biggest thrill in his Oakland Acad-
emy years was when his long-absent father attended the
big football game in Denzel’s senior year.) For a while,
Denzel envisioned himself one day becoming a profes-
sional athlete.
By the time Washington graduated from Oakland Acad-
emy in 1972, he was still unsure what he wanted to do
Beginnings • 13
with his life. On the other hand, he knew he needed a

college education to properly prepare himself for the
future. Of the colleges he applied to, Yale University
turned him down, and Boston University accepted him,
but his grades were insufficient for a much-needed
financial scholarship. As a result, Denzel enrolled at
Fordham University, whose Bronx campus was not far
away from his mother’s home. He paid for his tuition
through scholarships and such after-school jobs as oper-
ating a babysitting service at a Greek Orthodox church in
Manhattan.
Washington began his studies at Fordham in the fall of
1972 as a pre-med major, a choice made to please his
mother. He also played on the football team but soon
became discouraged when a new gridiron coach demoted
him from playing defensive back to second string and
benchwarmer. As the school year progressed, Denzel real-
ized he did not have the aptitude or drive for the demand-
ing career of medicine. This realization led him to switch
to journalism. However, even with a new major and the
diversion of playing on the basketball team, Denzel
remained listless about his course work and frequently
skipped classes. His grade point average badly suffered.
When he was about to flunk out of school at the end of his
first semester of his sophomore year, Mrs. Washington
convinced campus authorities to let her son take time off,
to hopefully regain his perspective on life and the value of

education.
A Needy Reevaluation
Cast adrift from his academic routine, Denzel found work
where he could. For a while, he was employed in the
municipal sanitation department as a garbage collector,
then at a post office. Finding these jobs unfulfilling, he
considered joining the Army but never went through with
it. Eventually, Washington opted to reenroll at Fordham.
In the summer before returning to the university, he
accepted a job at a YMCA camp in Lakeville, Connecti-
cut. He was hired to supervise the camp’s sports pro-
gram and to help organize talent shows. For one such
evening’s entertainment, Denzel and the other coun-
selors put together a program for the campers. Doing his
bit in the proceedings, Washington found that not only
did the audience respond to his performance (a recita-
tion), which showed a great deal of natural presence,
but he also felt very much at ease on the stage. It led him
to a sudden realization that acting was what he wanted to
do with his life.
Once back at Fordham, Washington spent most of his
succeeding semesters at the university’s Manhattan cam-
pus pursuing both his journalism studies (as a job option
to fall back on in future times of need), writing poetry,
Beginnings • 15
and taking drama courses. Among his classes was a the-

ater workshop taught by Robinson Stone, an English/dra-
matic literature professor whose professional acting had
included working on stage in a production of Othello with
the legendary actor Paul Robeson and having a role in the
World War II prisoner-of-war movie Stalag 17 (1953). At
one of the first sessions of Stone’s workshop, the instruc-
tor asked his students what their professional goals were.
Denzel blurted out that he wanted to be “the greatest actor
in the world.”
Before long, Stone realized that Washington’s boast was
not out of the realm of possibility, as the young man
showed a natural bent for performing. As Denzel learned
basic acting techniques, his verve for life and his craft
grew, and he took more interest in his academics. Wash-
ington remembers, “At last something was exciting to me.
It was like I had found my niche. Suddenly, college took
on a new meaning.”
Mentoring this newcomer actor, the teacher cast Den-
zel in the title role of a campus production of Eugene
O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones. Denzel did so well in this
demanding project that, in his senior year, Stone gave
him the lead role in Shakespeare’s Othello. Fired up with
enthusiasm and passion for acting, Denzel said, “I
enjoyed being out in front of people. I enjoyed the way
they responded to me.”
Stone was so pleased with his protégé’s creative inter-

pretation of Othello that he encouraged fellow actor/movie
star José Ferrer to attend a performance. Stone recalled
that he and Ferrer “agreed that Denzel had a brilliant
career ahead of him.” Acclaimed for his acting achieve-
ments on campus, it was not long before someone said to
Denzel, “You can do this for a living.” The professor agreed
and soon arranged for TV and movie casting agents to
come see Washington perform. It led to Washington sign-
ing with a talent agency.
Making His TV Debut

Shortly after his latest successful appearance on the Ford-
ham University stage, the handsome young actor tested for
a role in the television film Wilma (1977). The NBC-TV
production dealt with African-American track sprinter
Wilma Rudolph (played by Shirley Jo Finney) who over-
came physical and personal handicaps to win a trio of gold
medals at the 1960 Olympics. Denzel auditioned for the
role of Wilma’s boyfriend. Because he had no professional
experience, he took the risky step of presenting the film’s
casting director with an exaggerated acting résumé. Years
later, Washington laughingly recalled, “Maybe they cast me
because I cared enough about it to lie to get it.”
Soon after graduating from Fordham with a degree in
journalism and drama, Denzel was in front of the cameras
Beginnings • 17
“and all I remember feeling was fear.” In fact, the fledgling

actor was so preoccupied with his new acting job (which
required him to adjust from stage work to performing in
front of a camera) that he took only momentary notice of
another performer in the cast. She was North
Carolina–born Pauletta Pearson, a young actress and
musician, who had the role of runner Mae Faggs. Because
Pauletta was just finishing her part in Wilma as Denzel
was starting his, the two had little opportunity for any
exchange beyond a quick hello. Caught up in his work,
Denzel quickly forgot about her. However, the more pro-
fessionally seasoned Pearson took full notice of attractive
Denzel.
Wilma debuted on December 19, 1977. Despite high
hopes for his career debut, the TV production came and
went without too much notice. Denzel was disappointed
by the tepid reaction to Wilma, but, by then, he was
already enrolled in the American Conservatory Theatre
(ACT) in San Francisco. Having seen an impressive ACT
production of The Taming of the Shrew on PBS-TV, Wash-
ington was determined to go to the American Conserva-
tory. One of thousands to audition for the prestigious
school’s three-year program, he was among the 45
selected for the difficult curriculum. However, as before,
Washington showed little enthusiasm for classroom theory,
only coming alive when he was performing in workshop
productions like Moonchildren and Man and Superman.

Soon believing that he had absorbed enough from acting
technique lessons, he increasingly began to cut classes. He
spent more of his time at his part-time waiter’s job and
hanging out in the Golden Gate city. Nevertheless, the
twentysomething Washington, who now sported an Afro
hairstyle and a goatee, was among the 20 ACT students
who survived the academic cuts and was accepted into the
second-year class.
Restless with the ACT regimen, Denzel chose to leave
San Francisco. Since he was already on the West Coast, he
went to Los Angeles, where he stayed with a cousin. He
hoped he could break into the Hollywood film and televi-
sion industry. However, the novice quickly discovered
that in sprawling L.A. “not only do you need a car, you
need a job.”
Washington soon realized how fiercely competitive it
was for a struggling newcomer in the late 1970s to gain a
foothold in show business—especially for a black man.
Disappointed and frustrated, Washington returned to New
York and the safety net of his mother’s apartment in
Mount Vernon. His immediate plan was to find his pro-
fessional niche in the theater world.
3
PAYING HIS
DUES
For a young African-American actor such as Denzel,
returning to New York in the late 1970s was fortuitous. For
one thing, the United States was slowly becoming more
racially integrated. This was especially true in the New
York theater world. Finally, African Americans were being
given more meaningful opportunities to participate in
productions. No longer was black talent restricted to the
few available racially stereotyped parts. Gradually, signif-
icant roles in integrated theater productions were becom-
ing available to black actors. Meanwhile, several black
acting troupes such as the Negro Ensemble Company con-
tinued to provide opportunities for African Americans to
practice their craft in front of audiences.
In this period of growing civil rights for blacks, Denzel
auditioned for and found roles in such off-Broadway proj-
ects as The Mighty Gents, Spell #7, A Gee-chee Quick Magic
19
Trance Manual, and Lonnie Elder III’s Ceremonies in Dark

Old Men. For a 1979 Shakespeare in the Park production of
Coriolanus—staged by the Black and Hispanic Acting
Ensemble—Washington played Aediles. While many of
these modest presentations were short-lived, they pro-
vided Washington with needed theater experience. (To
further hone his skills, he took acting classes with Wyn
Handman, one of the pioneers of the off-Broadway theater
movement.) However, there were frequent periods when
Denzel had no acting assignments and he was forced to go
on unemployment.
When Denzel was cast in the four-hour TV movie Flesh
and Blood, he thought now he would make his profes-
sional mark on nationwide television. Washington played
Kirk, who was involved in a young street tough’s rise to
the top of the boxing world. However, the CBS-TV network
production, which aired in October 1979, did little for
Denzel’s career.
Meeting Ms. Right . . . Again

While Denzel was struggling through his acting appren-
ticeship in New York, he became reacquainted with
Pauletta Pearson, whom he’d first met on the set of Wilma
in 1977. Fate threw the two together (first at a mutual
friend’s party, then at a theater showcase performance),
and they quickly began dating. Within a year, the couple
Paying His Dues • 21
was living together, sharing Denzel’s room at his mother’s

apartment in Mount Vernon so that they could stretch
their meager budget as far as possible.
During this trying professional period, it was Pauletta
and his mother who gave Washington daily encourage-
ment to continue in his chosen craft. Their support
helped him to overcome the disappointments of unsuc-
cessful auditions or short-lived productions. He was aware
that, although things were improving for African Ameri-
cans in the entertainment field, it was still difficult for a
black performer to find steady, meaningful work in show
business. At times, his ongoing career struggle made him
bitter and angry.
In 1980 Denzel was cast in Sharon Pollock’s One Tiger
to a Hill performed at the Manhattan Theatre Club. There-
after, no roles came along. A deeply disheartened Wash-
ington was ready to admit professional defeat and accept
any type of work in order to support Pauletta and himself.
He took a position with the county department of recre-
ation. However, even at this point, Pauletta refused to
become discouraged. She kept urging Denzel to “keep
trying” to make a go of his acting career and he continued
to audition. One week before he was to start his new job
in the county department, he was cast in a key assign-
ment in Laurence Holder’s When the Chickens Come Home
to Roost.
Denzel was to play Malcolm X in this fictional drama

about a meeting between the black political activist and
Elijah Muhammad, the head of the Nation of Islam. Wash-
ington had a difficult task ahead to learn all about his
stage character since, as a child in his father’s household,
he had heard little or nothing about this assassinated
champion for black rights. Burrowing into his role, he
studied audio tapes and film footage of Malcolm X to bet-
ter prepare for the upcoming production. He even dyed
his hair red to look more like his stage alter ego.
When the Chickens Come Home to Roost opened off-
Broadway at the New Federal Theatre on June 18, 1981.
Although the show only lasted for 12 performances, it
was long enough for Denzel to receive sterling reviews
for his riveting interpretation of Malcolm X. The New
York Times’ Frank Rich praised Washington for being
“honorable and altruistic without ever becoming a plaster
saint.” Later, the Audience Development Committee
awarded Denzel the annual Audelco Award for his
impressive acting.
Thrilled and uplifted by this artistic experience and his
new knowledge of the slain black leader, Denzel had a
premonition: “I know I’m going to do this movie [about
Malcolm X] one day. I know it.” He promised himself he
“wasn’t going to do anything even dealing with Malcolm X
until I did the film about his life.”
Breaking into the Movies

During this up-and-down period in Denzel’s stage career,
his talent agent arranged for Denzel to audition for an
upcoming Hollywood film. The agent reasoned that it
would be an opportunity for Denzel to earn a healthy pay-
check, and the experience might open doors for the young
actor within the film industry. The film in question was
Carbon Copy (1981), which co-starred George Segal as a
successful California executive who suddenly discovers
he has a 17-year-old black son, the product of a long-
forgotten relationship. Washington was hired for the
movie, which ultimately failed to make much of an
impact with filmgoers.
By the time of this latest professional setback, Denzel
was emotionally better equipped to deal with failure and
he needed little encouragement to pursue his true love—
the theater. It also helped that, by then, he was already
cast in Charles Fuller’s A Soldier’s Play, which focused on
a World War II training-camp murder. Presented by the
Negro Ensemble Company, the drama featured Washing-
ton (as Private 1st Class Melvin Peterson), Adolph Caesar,
and Samuel L. Jackson. The show bowed at Manhattan’s
Theatre Four in November 1981 to great acclaim. The New
York Times pointed out that Washington “who recently
scored as Malcolm X in When the Chickens Come Home to
Roost, is equally effective here as another, cooler kind of
Critics were impressed with Denzel’s (fourth from left)

performance in the off-Broadway production A Soldier’s Play.
The play also featured the then-unknown actor Samuel L.
Jackson (fifth from left). (Photofest)
young renegade.” The Hollywood trade paper Variety cited

Denzel for being “particularly impressive.”
A Soldier’s Play won several awards, including the
Pulitzer Prize. Denzel earned off-Broadway’s Obie Award
for his performance.
St. Elsewhere to the Rescue

While the screen comedy Carbon Copy had come and
gone, one individual who saw the heavy-handed feature
film was TV producer Bruce Paltrow (father of Oscar-
winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow). He was assembling a

large cast of regulars for St. Elsewhere, a new hour-long
medical drama to debut on the NBC network in the fall of
1982. Despite the lure of a steady and healthy salary,
Washington was quite concerned about committing him-
self to a full-time stint as a regular on a TV series. He
feared being typecast (seen as able to play only one type
of character) by appearing on a weekly series; he also felt
it might hurt his future opportunities for stage and film
assignments. Eventually, thanks to Paltrow’s persistence,
Denzel and his agent negotiated a deal that would allow
Denzel time off to pursue other artistic options. Besides,
Washington told himself, this series seemed an unlikely
candidate for success and would probably only last for its
initial 13-week network commitment.
On St. Elsewhere, Denzel was cast as Dr. Phillip Chandler,
a member of the medical team at Boston’s run-down St.
Eligius Hospital. St. Elsewhere debuted on October 26, 1982,
to strong critical praise for tackling difficult topics and for
the cast’s solid acting. While this medical drama never
earned high home-audience ratings, it was a critical
favorite, winning a dozen Emmys in its six years on the air.
When St. Elsewhere proved to be an ongoing TV project
season after season, Paltrow and the production team kept
their word that Denzel’s Dr. Chandler would remain a sec-
ondary character in the series. As such, this handsome,
well-mannered physician often disappeared for a few

episodes here and there, and then quietly returned to the
story line. Later, Washington candidly admitted, “I didn’t
From 1982 to 1988, Denzel was part of the ensemble cast of

St. Elsewhere, a television drama. (Photofest)
give a lot of input into my character, because I didn’t want

it to expand too much. I wanted to remain in the back-
ground so I could do movies.” By the time the acclaimed
television series ended its run in spring 1988, Denzel was
earning $30,000 per episode.
A Soldier’s Story
During Denzel’s long tenure on St. Elsewhere, he stretched
his talents in several directions. He wrote a few screen-
plays (about which he acknowledged “They’re just not too
good . . . other people told me they stunk, too.”). He took
time out from his TV series work to film the movie adap-
tation of A Soldier’s Play, retitled A Solder’s Story (1984),
directed by Norman Jewison. Denzel recreated his role of
Peterson, one of the men who had clashed with the homi-
cide victim in the film. While Newsweek thought the film
adaptation suffered from “its complexity [being] thinned
out,” Variety rated the entry “a taut, gripping film.” The
trade publication cited Washington as being “totally con-
vincing” and Pauline Kael (The New Yorker) judged Denzel
as “the standout” in the superior cast.
Meanwhile, Denzel made other forays into TV work.
He was in the 1984 CBS network feature License to Kill.
Cast as an assistant district attorney, he supported the
lead characters in an account of a young woman killed by
a drunk driver. Also for CBS, Washington starred in The
George McKenna Story (1986), a TV movie based on the

true-life story of the crusading principal in a drug-
infested South Los Angeles high school. Denzel’s charac-
ter inspires his students to care about their education.
The film’s director was a St. Elsewhere co-star, Eric
Laneuville. Denzel received far better reviews than the
film did as a whole.
In the midst of his upward spiraling career, he and
Pauletta married in June 1983 in her hometown of New-
ton, North Carolina. The following year, she gave birth to
their first child, John David. (The Washingtons would
later become parents of Katia in 1988 and of twins, Mal-
colm and Olivia, in 1991.) Becoming a parent gave work-
obsessed Denzel a new slant on life. As he later analyzed
it, the arrival of his first offspring made him start to real-
ize “the difference between life and making a living. I
used to think what I did for a living was my life. Acting
[was] my life. When we had that first child, acting became
making a living. The child was life. It’s a miracle, an
absolute miracle what happens.” Meanwhile, to be a
homemaker and mother, Pauletta had put her career in
the arts on hold.
Building His Resume

In 1986, Denzel accepted a supporting role in the film
Power. This assignment gave him the opportunity to work
with veteran director Sidney Lumet and to interact with a

distinguished cast that included Richard Gere, Julie
Christie, and Gene Hackman. What especially appealed to
Washington about the project was that his role—a slick lob-
byist for rich Arab oil interests—had originally been writ-
ten for a middle-aged white actor. Despite the high-caliber
talent in this film, critics scorned it, saying the plot lacked
a proper finale and that the script was often simplistic. But
Denzel emerged from the film without receiving much
criticism for his performance.
Usually Denzel waited to be approached for an acting
assignment, but he was so intrigued by Oliver Stone’s
then-upcoming picture, Platoon (1986), that he cam-
paigned hard to win the role of Sergeant Elias, a Native
American member of the American forces fighting in
Vietnam. Stone rejected Denzel for the pivotal role, even
when Denzel pointed out that his background was
part–Native American. Instead, Stone offered him another
assignment in the combat picture, which Denzel turned
down because he felt the role reflected poorly on the
black soldiers who had served in Vietnam.
In contrast, Washington pondered for awhile before
accepting his next screen assignment, Cry Freedom (1987).
For this picture, British filmmaker Richard Attenborough
was looking for “a man of charm, of erudition, of intellect,
of perception, who was humorous, relaxed yet confident”
to play the key screen role of Steve Biko. Biko was a real-
life South African radical leader; he fought against
apartheid, the South African government’s rigid policy of
racial segregation in all walks of life. After Biko had been
banned from political activity in 1973 by the white South
African government, he died mysteriously while in police
custody. Attenborough was shown a tape of the movie A
Soldier’s Story and thought that Denzel fit the bill for the
upcoming movie.
Washington was leery about taking on the job offer for
several reasons. It meant he would have to commute
between Zimbabwe (which is located northeast of South
Africa) and the United States to fulfill his other profes-
sional obligations. He hated the notion of being separated
from his wife and child. Also, Denzel was concerned
about the film’s point of view. To give the picture a wider
audience, Cry Freedom focused on a white South African
reporter who first opposes, then befriends, and later
champions the memory of Biko. After much indecision,
Denzel finally chose to make the film, reasoning, “The
important thing to me was to give people a chance to find
out who [Steve Biko] is. . . .”
With only several weeks to prepare for the part, Denzel
began to extensively research the real-life character he
was to portray on screen, studying photographs, audio
tapes, and film footage of the late activist. To enhance his
likeness to Biko, Washington embarked on a special diet to

add 30 pounds to his frame, grew a straggly goatee, and
worked with an instructor to develop an appropriate South
African accent. To further augment his look as Biko, Wash-
ington had the caps over his front teeth temporarily
removed, which revealed a wide gap.
When Cry Freedom was released in November 1987, crit-
ics complained that the film’s white point of view was its
downfall. Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times) pointed out,
“This movie promises to be an honest account of the tur-
moil in South Africa but turns into a routine cliff-hanger
about the editor’s flight across the border.” Rita Kempley
(Washington Post), while disturbed that the black charac-
ters had been submerged in the film, nevertheless found
that Denzel gave “a zealous, Oscar-caliber performance.”
Despite Washington’s disappointment over the artistic
outcome of this screen project, he did receive acclaim
from his peers. He was nominated for (but did not win)
both a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar for his per-
formance. The film had also allowed Denzel to visit Africa
for the first time. For the rising actor it felt, “like a home-
coming” to be in the land of his ancestors and to learn
more about his cultural roots. He added, “I’ll never forget
Africa. . . . I felt very comfortable there.”
In 1988, Denzel made another a British-produced fea-
ture film, For Queen and Country. Having a lull in his
workload and being fearful of unemployment, he had got-

ten hold of the film script and strongly pursued the direc-
tor, Martin Stellman, for the central role; the filmmaker
had initially been seeking a British black performer to
take the part, but he ended up hiring Denzel. This time
Washington worked with a speech coach and lived for a
time in South London to help with the English accent
needed for the part. In For Queen and Country, he was
seen as an Afro-Caribbean man back home in London
from fighting in the Falklands, where the British had
defeated Argentina in the early 1980s. Released from mil-
itary duty, the former paratrooper questions all his life
values as he confronts racism, poverty, and corruption.
The bleak tale was not released in the United States until
1989, and even then on just a few screens. Thus, rela-
tively few moviegoers got to see Washington’s seasoned
performance in this picture.
Having been away from home and family too long, Den-
zel was happy to next accept a stage assignment—this
time on Broadway.
4
A MARCH
TO GLORY
The production that finally brought Denzel Washington to
Broadway was Checkmates by Ron Miller. The drama pre-
sented Denzel as a slick Detroit liquor distributor who
lives with his wife in a two-story home shared with
another couple. To research his role as a buppie (slang for
black urban professional), Denzel worked with a real-life
counterpart of his character so he could better understand
his role—that of a seemingly charming man who is actu-
ally an abusive bigot.
The play opened in August 1988 and lasted for 177 per-
formances. Critics and theatergoers alike were not espe-
cially impressed with the play. Nevertheless, in a cast of
seasoned talent, Denzel received positive notice from
reviewers.
If Checkmates had not been the artistic and commercial
hit that Washington had hoped for, it did help him achieve
33
a goal of every American stage actor—to perform on the

Broadway stage.
Earning His First Oscar

Now that Denzel’s lucrative six-year tenure on TV’s St. Else-
where had come to an end, he was anxious to propel his
screen career forward. His next film was MGM’s The Mighty
Quinn (1989). In this whodunit he was cast in the lead role
of Xavier Quinn, the black head of police on a picturesque
Caribbean island. While investigating the murder of a white
resort owner who had been killed because of a large sum of
money, he becomes convinced that the chief suspect—his
childhood friend (played by Robert Townsend, one of Den-
zel’s coplayers in A Soldier’s Story)—is innocent.
This comedic mystery allowed Denzel a well-rounded
role. Not only did his on-screen alter ego actually have a
love life (an aspect sadly missing from most movies of
that time that dealt with black characters), but in one of
the picture’s lighter moments, he performs an impromptu
reggae number. One sequence that did not make it into
the film’s release print was a kissing/seduction scene
between Washington and the flirty white wife of the
resort’s manager. MGM felt that many filmgoers were not
ready for interracial love scenes.
While The Mighty Quinn did not make much money,
Denzel received sizeable critical attention for his per-
A March to Glory • 35
formance. People maga-

zine enthused, “He gives a
small-time film some big-
time appeal.” Roger Ebert
(Chicago Sun-Times) said,
“Washington is at the
heart of the movie, and
what he accomplishes is a
lesson in movie acting.”
New York magazine’s
David Denby said that
Washington “has a quick,
fluid intelligence, fierce In the film Glory, Denzel
concentration, a beautiful portrayed a soldier in the first
voice, and a graceful way all-black Civil War regiment.
of taking the obvious (Photofest)
macho emphasis out of an
action role.” Denby predicted, “Sooner or later Denzel
Washington will become a great movie star.”
From the comedic The Mighty Quinn Washington moved
on to Glory (1989), the first of several movies he would
make with director Edward Zwick. Glory unfolded the lit-
tle-known true account of some of the many thousands of
black soldiers who served on the Union side during the
American Civil War of the 1860s. The war drama focused
on the 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Voluntary
35
Infantry. This—the first regiment of black soldiers—was

led by a 23-year-old white officer, Robert Gould Shaw
(played by Matthew Broderick).
Initially, Denzel had been hesitant to become part of
this film project. It was not because he was “reduced” to a
supporting role in the cast but rather that he was
extremely reluctant to appear in a “slave film.” However,
after meetings with Zwick and the scenarist, who agreed
to flesh out the African-American characters, he accepted.
The actor reasoned that this historical combat drama
involving ex-slaves was “as a black American, that’s my
history, and this isn’t a [slave story].” As the script was
finalized, the story became a study of free men risking
their lives to fight for the freedom of all black people in
the United States. Since the Caucasian Shaw had been the
actual leader of the 54th Regiment, Denzel came to feel
more comfortable with a white actor being top-featured in
the cast. Once again, he was convinced that participating
in this screen venture would help to illuminate to black
audiences the brave, little-recorded role that many of their
ancestors had played in the Civil War. He further rea-
soned, “As long as I feel there is an honest portrayal, a
fully realized character, then I would do [such a part].”
Shot on location in Massachusetts and Georgia, the
$18 million production reached theaters in December
1989. Critical reaction to the movie was mixed, including
that of The New Yorker, which reported, “Glory isn’t a

great film, but it’s a good film on a great subject.” How-
ever, unlike Cry Freedom, which had annoyed many
viewers for being a black story told through white eyes,
Glory evenly balanced its presentation, a situation aided
by the exceptionally strong performances offered by the
movie’s black talent.
As usual, Denzel thoroughly researched his role (includ-
ing reading old slave journals) as he developed the back
story of his runaway slave character. Private Trip is one of
the African-American characters (some ex-slaves, others
northern farmers, businessmen, and so forth) who will-
ingly risked their lives for the Union cause only to find
that they were treated poorly and sometimes cruelly by
most of the white Union officers and soldiers. Washington
was so in tune with his movie character that he was able
sometimes to adlib (make up) dialogue during onscreen
moments. Denzel’s most heartfelt scene in the picture
occurs when his Regiment superiors order him to be
whipped for a supposed (and erroneous) infraction of
Army rules. As he endures his punishment—the type of
treatment that blacks received from their plantation mas-
ters in the South—a tear of frustration and resignation
trickles down his stern face.
Washington said of this moviemaking experience, “I was
happier making Glory than I’ve ever been working on a
movie.” He attributed this feeling not only to the rare lux-

ury of the cast having a “great deal of rehearsal time” but
that he was playing a character that “I really found inter-
esting.” He explained further, “He is somebody who
makes people uncomfortable, because he’s a racist. But he
was made a racist by racism. He lived the way he had to
live, doing what it took to survive. He wasn’t afraid, which
I admire.”
Glory went on to win
several prizes from indus-
try awards competitions.
Denzel received many of
these prizes. He, like the
film, won accolades from
the Image Awards given by
the National Association
for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP).
In addition, Washington
claimed a Golden Globe
prize as Best Supporting
Actor. And, at the Acad-
For his role in Glory, Denzel
emy Awards in March
earned both an Oscar and a
Golden Globe (pictured here) 1980, Denzel beat out such
for Best Supporting Actor. actor rivals as Marlon
(Photofest) Brando and Martin Landau
to win the Oscar in the Best Supporting Actor category. On

stage at the ceremony, after thanking his wife and mother
who were in the audience, he paid homage “to the 54th,
the black soldiers who helped to make this country free.”
After the event, the jubilant Oscar winner told the media,
“It’s good to be part of the club.”
In winning his Oscar, Denzel was only the fifth black
performer to ever receive an Academy Award.
Taking a Breather
Denzel felt he needed a lighthearted change of pace
after the heavy dramatics of Glory. Thus, he next
appeared in Heart Condition (1990), a comedic fantasy.
Washington was cast as suave Napoleon Stone, a lawyer
to a drug crowd who is being hounded by a bigoted
white cop. The cop suffers a near-fatal heart attack and
is rushed to the hospital. There he awakens from sur-
gery to discover that he has a new heart and that the
donor’s organ came from Stone, who had been fatally
shot by an unknown assailant. Thereafter, Napoleon
haunts the prejudiced lawman to solve his murder and,
when that is accomplished, to encourage the policeman
to take good care of his new heart. While the co-stars
gave solid performances, the film, with its unlikely and
awkward story, found little favorable response from
moviegoers.
Enter Spike Lee

When Denzel had appeared off-Broadway in 1981’s When
the Chickens Come Home to Roost, one of the theatergoers
impressed by his strong stage performance was future
moviemaker Spike Lee. When Washington was on Broad-
way in 1988’s Checkmates, Spike saw that play and noted
how women in the theater audience responded to Den-
zel’s magnetism. By the 1990s, Lee, who was just in his
early thirties, already had a strong reputation within the
film industry and with the public as the director of such
controversial features as She’s Gotta Have It (1986) and Do
the Right Thing (1989). A vocal crusader for Hollywood
making more movies about black topics, he was now
preparing Mo’ Better Blues (1990). As was usual with Lee
vehicles, the story line would have a current of racial
issues underscoring the plot. Spike hired Washington to
star in the picture, insisting, “I think this role will free
Denzel from playing these great, heroic, stoic types.”
To prepare for his assignment as a trumpeter and jazz
musician named Bleek Gilliam, Denzel consulted with
veteran jazz performer Miles Davis. Washington also
studied trumpet with Terence Blanchard (who along
with Spike’s father, Bill Lee, contributed original music
to the film’s score). Having learned to play the instru-
ment with sufficient credibility (although much of the
music on the soundtrack was dubbed in by Blanchard),
Denzel’s work with director Spike Lee (right) in the film

Mo’ Better Blues was the beginning of a long and productive
friendship. (Photofest)
Denzel began his celluloid role as the self-centered

musician.
Bleek forms his own jazz quartet to play at New
York–area clubs. His rise to success is inhibited by his
near-total self-involvement in his musical career. His
casual attitude toward others extends to his romantic life

as he alternates between various love partners, including
the two principal women in his life (played by Spike’s sis-
ter, Joie Lee, and by Cynda Williams).
Lee and Washington developed a good working rela-
tionship on the movie set; as a result, Denzel was able to
improvise in front of the camera (that is, adding dialogue
and actions that aren’t in the film’s script). However, that
bond was disturbed when it came time for Denzel to do
his explicitly romantic sequences. Being extremely pri-
vate by nature and inheriting a degree of conservatism
from his preacher father (who died in 1991 at age 81), the
actor refused to take off his undershirt—let alone his
clothes—for any of the intimate scenes to be filmed. This
decision annoyed his two female coleads (who each had
to disrobe on-camera) and upset Spike, but Denzel refused
to budge on this matter, reasoning that it wasn’t proper for
a family man to be disrobed on camera.
When released, many reviewers thought the well-acted
Mo’ Better Blues was too ambitious and had not met its cre-
ative goals. Many also felt that the picture’s underlying
racial themes got in the way of the story. In contrast to the
picture’s mixed reception, Denzel was praised by many
sources for providing another engrossing character inter-
pretation. Hal Hinson (Washington Post) judged, “Wash-
ington gives Bleek a quiet, flashing charm; he delivers a
gorgeous, magnetically sexy performance—a true star per-

formance.” Cosmopolitan magazine decided, “Denzel
Washington is a superstar waiting to happen.” Made for a
cost of $10 million, Mo’ Better Blues grossed a disappoint-
ing $16.2 million in domestic distribution.
Despite the flaws of Mo’ Better Blues, it was the start of
a long-term working relationship between Spike Lee and
Denzel Washington.
Meanwhile, with the aid of Denzel’s improved salary
status in the entertainment business he, Pauletta, and the
children had moved to a home in Toluca Lake, an upscale
community a few miles northwest of Los Angeles, to
accommodate the growing family. To diversify their finan-
cial interests, the Washingtons invested in a Los Angeles
restaurant named Georgia. In addition, with Flo Allen, a
former talent agent, Denzel formed Mundy Lane Enter-
tainment (the name was based on the street where Den-
zel grew up in Mount Vernon). One of the production
company’s first projects was Hank Aaron: Chasing a
Dream, a documentary about baseball that aired on the
TBS cable network and eventually claimed an Emmy
Award nomination.
A Few Steps Back in His Career

Anxious to get back to his stage acting roots, Denzel was
enthusiastic when esteemed stage director Joseph Papp,
who had seen Denzel perform in Checkmates, asked him

to accept the lead role in Richard III. This play was to be
staged in August 1990 in Central Park as part of the New
York Shakespeare Festival.
Playing the lead in this classic drama seemed like a great
opportunity for Denzel to reaffirm his live acting talents.
However, for some reason, the demanding role of the
deformed monarch seemed to elude Washington, whose
performance was largely seen as off the mark. John Simon
(New York magazine) lashed out, “What in his background
. . . could have prepared him for a Shakespearian lead?”
The trade journal Backstage criticized, “The actor’s lack of
command of the verse doesn’t help. The soliloquies [reflec-
tive monologues] lose power when Washington runs out of
breath by the end of the line or phrase.”
In spite of his artistic failure with Richard III, Washing-
ton told the press, “I’m going to continue to take chances—
fall on my face sometimes—but hopefully learn from the
experience.”
Next, Denzel was scheduled to pair with Michelle Pfeif-
fer in Love Field (1992), an interracial romantic story.
However, he withdrew from the project, explaining that
his screen character was not sufficiently developed.
Later in 1991 Denzel was again on screen, but this time
in a big change of pace from his work in Cry Freedom or
Mo’ Better Blues. He starred in a big-budget action picture,
the type usually reserved for such white action stars as

Sylvester Stallone or Bruce Willis. In Ricochet, Denzel
played Nick Styles, a Los Angeles police officer who had
put a major criminal (played by John Lithgow) behind
bars. The latter, a twisted, ingenious individual, eventually
Denzel received unfavorable reviews for his performance in

Richard III in New York’s Central Park. (Photofest)
escapes confinement and sets into motion an elaborate

scheme of revenge against Nick, who is now an assistant
district attorney. The plot takes many incredible turns,
allowing for impressive visual effects and intricate stunt
work. For this athletic role, 35-year-old Denzel dieted, exer-
cised, and trained hard. Despite his readiness for the part,
the film was not the right showcase for Washington and
was a commercial disappointment.
Washington’s own reaction to the film was equally neg-
ative. About the violent action-film genre, he admitted,
“This is not me. I can’t do this kind of movie. ‘Cause this
is mindless violence. I can’t be a part of this.” On the
other hand, the rising star later acknowledged that he
constantly encountered fans who ranked Ricochet as one
of their favorite Denzel movies.
For several years Denzel kept his creative promise to
avoid action roles. He returned to the type of small picture
in which his talent and personality could shine. For Mis-
sissippi Masala (1991), a film he fell in love with upon
reading the script, he agreed to take far less money than
his usual salary so that the project could go forward. Part
of the film’s title refers to masala, an Indian seasoning that
blends various-colored spices. This reflects the movie’s
merging of film genres (comedy, romance, and social
ethics) and race in a small Southern town setting. The two
lovers in the film are an ambitious African American
(played by Denzel) who operates his own carpet-cleaning

business and a sheltered young Indian woman (played
by Sarita Choudhury) who has immigrated from Uganda.
Her family observes the growing relationship between
her and the African American with much dismay.
Directed by India’s Mira Nair, the low-keyed feature
proved to be an uplifting and effective film when released.
Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) reported, “Washington and
newcomer Choudhury are vibrantly expressive as the
color-crossed lovers driven apart by racial tensions.” The
warmhearted, sensitive picture won several prizes at
international film festivals. In the United States, for por-
traying Demetrius Williams, Denzel received an NAACP
Image Award in the category of Outstanding Actor in a
Motion Picture. For Denzel, this recognition from the
NAACP was especially meaningful.
With Mississippi Masala, Denzel Washington reaffirmed
his acting expertise and charisma. By now, it was becom-
ing an annual event for magazines and polls to name Den-
zel as one of Hollywood’s best-looking and appealing
leading men.
5
MALCOLM X
For several years, filmmaker Norman Jewison (director of
1984’s A Soldier’s Story, in which Denzel had performed)
had been planning a movie biography of Malcolm X. By
the early 1990s Jewison finally had sufficient financing
for the film project and had cast Denzel Washington in the
demanding title role. This was a dream come true for
Denzel, who had wanted to play Malcolm X in film ever
since he had portrayed him on stage in the early 1980s.
In the meantime, director Spike Lee had complained to
the media about the political incorrectness of Jewison, a
white movie director, bringing this major African-Ameri-
can story to the screen. Lee mounted such a strong, con-
tinual media protest, that eventually Warner Bros., the
producing studio, caved in to his campaign and agreed
that he should, instead, direct the feature.
Because Lee himself had long envisioned Denzel in
the key role of Malcolm X, he kept Washington as star of
his forthcoming picture. However, Lee discarded most of
48
Malcolm X • 49
Jewison’s project and started relatively anew. This

included throwing out the current screenplay and,
instead, using an older script by James Baldwin and
Arnold Perl, which was based on The Autobiography of
Malcolm X (1965) by Malcolm X and Alex Haley.
Heavy-Duty Preparations
To prepare for this major artistic undertaking, Denzel
learned as much as he could about Malcolm X. Malcolm
X was born in the Midwest in 1925 as Malcolm Little. As
a youngster he and his family had suffered racial dis-
crimination and endured poverty. The boy had experi-
enced his Baptist-minister father being murdered by the
Ku Klux Klan. As a young man, Malcolm moved to
Harlem and became a small-time burglar. Thereafter he
had gone to Boston (where he had lived before) to fur-
ther pursue his life of petty crime. Eventually he was
arrested and sentenced to years behind bars. During his
lengthy prison stay, he gained spirituality and a new
philosophical/political perspective by studying the
preaching of the Nation of Islam. He then renamed him-
self Malcolm X.
When he was released from prison in 1952, he became
an active spokesperson for the Nation of Islam, guided by
that group’s Elijah Muhammad (played in the film by Al
Freeman Jr.). Later, Malcolm X wed Betty Shabazz (played
Portraying Malcolm X on film was like a dream come true for

Denzel. (Photofest)
by Angela Bassett), a Muslim nurse, and carried on his

preaching against the white race. As Malcolm X grew in
influence, he incurred the suspicion of Elijah Muham-
mad. In 1964, Malcolm X abandoned the Nation of Islam
and embarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca (in western Saudi
Arabia), the birthplace of Muhammad. Proclaiming him-
self to be El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, the rededicated leader
returned to America. By now he had discarded his belief
in racial separation, having become a firm believer in the
eventual unification of blacks and whites. In February
1965, at age 39, Malcolm X was assassinated in a Harlem
Malcolm X • 51
ballroom, purportedly killed by followers of the Nation of

Islam.
With location filming in New York, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa, the
elaborate, 202-minute Malcolm X cost $32 million to make.
As Denzel explained to film critic Roger Ebert, “This was
the first film where I did not want to stop shooting, espe-
cially the speeches. Once I got used to it, I just kept going
and going.” Washington also recalled, “Throughout the
film I lived Malcolm’s life whether the cameras were on or
off.” The movie star revealed, “The hardest scene for me
to shoot was probably the assassination. There was a dark
feeling on the set, and I felt shackled in it. . . . The first
take that we did, we had to stop, and some people were
crying and upset. It was an emotional couple of days.”
With humility, Denzel told Ebert, “I can’t be Malcolm X.
I’m not Malcolm X. But I think I can motivate or inspire—
be a tool, hopefully, to do some good in this world.” In
terms of working again with Spike Lee, Washington
acknowledged, “Spike’s not an actor’s director. Coming to
this film I knew what to expect, so it was real smooth.
Spike was more open to my ideas on this one, more col-
laborative.” Summing up his memorable experience
(which encompassed over a year and a half of work), Den-
zel said, “Everything I have done as an actor has been in
preparation for this.”
By the time that Malcolm X was shown in theaters in

mid-November 1992, the highly controversial movie had
been so hyped (and merchandised with tie-in products
such as baseball caps and T-shirts) that it would have been
practically impossible to meet critics and audiences’
expectations. Daily Variety pointed out, “The picture
comes up short in several departments, notably in pacing
and in giving a strong sense of why this man became a
legend.” As to the film’s lead actor, Vincent Canby (New
York Times) endorsed, “Mr. Washington not only looks the
part, but he also has the psychological heft, the intelli-
gence and the reserve to give the film the dramatic excite-
ment that isn’t always apparent in the screenplay.” The
Los Angeles Times judged, “Washington’s Malcolm is a
heroic performance in several senses, calling for him to be
on screen in almost every scene and to make all those
transformations believable, and the actor does it all with
a special grace.”
Malcolm X was not the booming box-office hit many peo-
ple had anticipated. The film claimed only two Oscar nom-
inations: Best Actor and Best Costumes. Denzel lost in his
category to Al Pacino, but insisted in a Gentlemen’s Quarterly
interview in January 1994, “I didn’t lose any sleep before or
after. It sounds like a stock answer, but it’s the truth.” Wash-
ington, however, did win, among others, a New York Film
Critics Circle Award and an MTV Movie Awards trophy for
Malcolm X • 53
Best Male Performance. At the 26th Annual NAACP Image

Awards, Denzel received Outstanding Actor in a Motion
Picture prize for his Malcolm X performance.
Changes of Pace
After his emotionally draining work on Malcolm X, Denzel
accepted an offer to play Don Pedro, the prince of Aragon
and the half-brother of Don John (played by Keanu
Reeves), in the Shakespearean comedy Much Ado About
Nothing (1993). Washington took this supporting assign-
ment because he wanted to work with director/star Ken-
neth Branagh and he welcomed another opportunity to
test his skills in a Shakespearean work, especially after his
faltering stage performance in 1990’s Richard III. Wearing
a moustache and trimmed beard for this production, Den-
zel was rated “subdued but graceful” (Sight and Sound mag-
azine). Within weeks of this film’s release, Denzel was
the new recipient of the Spencer Tracy Award from UCLA
for his overall body of acting work.
That same year Julia Roberts, the queen of the Holly-
wood box-office, returned to moviemaking after a two-
year vacation. She starred in The Pelican Brief, a thriller
based on John Grisham’s best-selling novel of the same
name. To the surprise of many industry onlookers,
Roberts wanted Denzel to be hired to play her leading
man—that of the Washington, D.C., investigative reporter
who comes to her rescue when she uncovers a deadly

political conspiracy. Although Grisham’s original book
had presented the character of Gray Grantham as a white
journalist—one who falls in love with the law-student
heroine—the Warner Bros. film does not include the
romantic subplot. The film’s creators insisted that this
change was not made out of concern about showing an
interracial romance but because such a relationship would
detract from the thriller.
Entertainment Weekly ranked The Pelican Brief a “C–”
explaining that the movie “settles into a deadening
rhythm of snoop, get chased, hide in a hotel room, snoop,
get chased, hide in a hotel room.” But the same reviewer
said that Roberts and Washington did their best with the
poor script. As to Washington’s performance, Roger Ebert
(Chicago Sun-Times) cited, he “shows again how credible
he seems on the screen; like Spencer Tracy, he can make
you believe in almost any character.” Time magazine con-
curred: “Washington underplays suavely, it’s almost
impossible to muffle his charisma.” The Pelican Brief was
a profitable crossover into mainstream cinema for Denzel
after the highly political Malcolm X.
Another Blockbuster
Within days of the release of The Pelican Brief, Denzel
appeared on screen in another major production,
Malcolm X • 55
Philadelphia (1993). Unlike the commercial thriller The

Pelican Brief, Philadelphia was a decidedly controversial
drama. It was a major studio movie about the enormously
sensitive topics of discrimination against homosexuals
and AIDS victims.
The film stars Tom Hanks as a successful Pennsylva-
nia attorney at a wealthy corporate law firm who is sud-
denly fired from his post. Hanks’s character suspects
that his dismissal was not for his legal work but because
his employers had discovered that he was suffering from
AIDS. Although he is determined to fight back, Hanks’s
character has great difficulty finding a lawyer to repre-
sent him in his lawsuit. Finally, Joe Miller (played by
Denzel), a small-time attorney and family man who is
homophobic, accepts the challenge and battles the odds
in the courtroom to prove his dying client’s difficult
case. In the process, Miller gains an understanding
and respect for his client, homosexuals, and the reality
of AIDS.
As in The Pelican Brief, Washington’s part was originally
conceived for a white performer and his role was subor-
dinate to his colead. The experience of burrowing into
his bigoted character gave Denzel an opportunity to exam-
ine the issues of homophobia and paranoia about AIDS
victims. At the end of his enlightening participation in this
film, Denzel said, “I don’t think I am anything like . . .
[my] character . . . but I think I got a chance to vent cer-

tain frustrations, maybe. It was a good education.”
Denzel earned good reviews for his performance in
Philadelphia. The Los Angeles Times enthused, “It was
once thought an almost scientific impossibility that
Washington could top his [Malcolm X] performance . . .
but [in Philadelphia] he seems to redefine intensity and
passion.” The Hollywood Reporter labeled Denzel “engag-
ingly scrappy.” People magazine argued, “Washington
provides strong support,” and Daily Variety judged him
Tom Hanks and Denzel in Philadelphia (Photofest)

Malcolm X • 57
“first-rate as the attorney dragged reluctantly out of his

own selfishness.”
Thanks to two back-to-back box-office megahits, it was
little wonder that Denzel Washington was now com-
manding an $8 million salary per film. His fee was rising
due to his unique appeal to a wide range of moviegoers,
no matter what their racial and economical background.
With his remarkable industry success, Washington
was much in demand for media interviews. However, he
still refused to discuss his personal life. He did say that
he got a great deal of satisfaction out of being a family
man who was responsive to his children’s needs,
whether at home, at school, at church, or on the sports
playing field (where Denzel often served as coach for
his children’s teams). He and wife Pauletta took advan-
tage of their growing financial good fortune to increase
their charitable donations and to participate in causes
close to their heart—especially those related to helping
the black community, AIDS victims, and disadvantaged
children.
Back into Action

A few years earlier, after the failure of 1991’s Ricochet,
Denzel had vowed not to star in any more action movies.
However, he had a change of heart when his son begged
his dad to stop making “old-folks movies” and “do some
action movies.” Taking the request seriously, the movie

star complied over the next few years.
Crimson Tide (1995) gave Denzel an opportunity to
work again with Gene Hackman (with whom he had
appeared in Power). In this thriller, Russian rebels have
taken over a long-range missile base in the former USSR.
In response, the United States dispatches a nuclear sub-
marine (the USS Alabama) to be on hand to retaliate in
case the Russian base attacks America. During this highly
charged situation, the vessel receives a message from
higher-ups but can only decipher part of the command
because its radio system has been damaged by enemy
activity. Hackman’s captain and Washington’s lieutenant
commander have different opinions as to their next
course of action. It leads to various mutinies aboard the
Alabama and a fight for control of the submarine’s deadly
nuclear missiles.
Mick LaSalle (San Francisco Chronicle) lauded this sum-
mer film: “[It] has everything you could want from an
action thriller and a few other things you usually can’t
hope to expect: an excellent script, first-rate performances
and a story that has more to do with individuals than
explosions.” He further praised, “Washington has always
been an appealing star, but in Crimson Tide we find him,
in this leading man role, more convincing than ever.” The
film was a box-office hit, and Denzel received another
Malcolm X • 59
NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion

Picture for this role.
Paramount’s Virtuosity (1995), a sci-fi thriller that
tapped the growing public interest in computers, the
Internet, and cyberspace, was released a few months later.
In this film Denzel plays a cop with a twisted past who is
paroled from prison to fight a virtual-reality serial killer.
The special effects–laden feature was unable to generate
audience interest. Reflecting on this unsuccessful ven-
ture, Denzel observed that it was “one of the hardest films
I’ve ever done” and that “You gotta run and jump and you
don’t talk. It’s not acting.”
Assessing the situation, Washington determined to
return to the type of filmmaking he knew best—stories
that were character-driven and did not revolve around
high-blown special effects.
6
THE
BOX-OFFICE
WINNER
After several years of preparation, in 1995 Denzel felt ready
to produce a full-length feature film for the Mundy Lane
Entertainment company that he had formed back in 1990.
For his first production effort, he chose to bring the
dark tale Devil in a Blue Dress to the screen. Based on Wal-
ter Mosley’s 1990 novel and directed by Carl Franklin, it
was one of several books featuring African-American pri-
vate eye Ezikeal “Easy” Rawlins and set in Los Angeles (in
the 1940s and thereafter). Producer/star Denzel plays
Rawlins, a World War II veteran, unemployed aircraft-fac-
tory worker, and private eye. He is hired to locate a miss-
ing white woman (played by Jennifer Beals) thought to be
in hiding in South Central, the city’s black neighborhood.
60
The Box-Office Winner • 61
In the process, he meets a wide variety of eccentric and

often dangerous characters.
Hal Hinson (Washington Post) said of Devil in a Blue
Dress, “The film’s principal virtue, is its sense of reality—
in particular the reality of segregated Los Angeles in the
’40s.” Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) praised Denzel’s “richly
detailed portrayal” of Easy.
Despite the movie’s many virtues—which included the
realistic period atmosphere and the exploration of serious
racial issues—many felt the plot was too complicated.
Also, movie audiences who expected a sizzling romance
between Denzel’s and Beals’s characters, as had been the
case in the book original, were sadly disappointed. Over-
all, the film was a commercial misstep.
Having made several back-to-back films, an exhausted
Denzel fulfilled a promise he made when shooting Cry
Freedom a few years earlier. He took his family on a
safari to Africa. They visited Tanzania, Kenya, the island
of Zanzibar, and, later, made a stopover in South Africa.
By then apartheid had ended in South Africa and the
country’s distinguished president, Nelson Mandela, was
on hand to greet Denzel and his family. While in South
Africa, Washington and Pauletta renewed their wedding
vows in a ceremony conducted by Archbishop Desmond
Tutu, the country’s chief religious leader.
In Top Form
Refreshed and in top acting form after his trip abroad,
Denzel reunited with director Edward Zwick (Glory) for
the big-budget 20th Century Fox release Courage under Fire
(1996). Washington beat out Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford
to gain this role, and, as his prize, claimed a $10 million
salary. Co-starring Meg Ryan and Lou Diamond Phillips,
this was the first major studio film to deal with the 1991
Gulf War. Denzel is seen as Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel
Sterling who is ordered to decide whether the deceased
Captain Emma Walden (Ryan), a medevac pilot, should
receive the Medal of Honor for bravery in the line of fire.
Before the honor can be bestowed—the first such given to
a woman—Sterling must interview Walden’s surviving
crew, each of whom has a different take on what actually
happened during the fateful mission. Clouding his inves-
tigation is his guilt and grief over members of his tank
unit who had recently died.
Ever the professional, Denzel researched his role by
observing closely a tank group at the Army’s National
Training Center at Fort Irwin in Northern California. His
preparation included participating in tank artillery
maneuvers and complex battle simulations. Impressed by
his experiences on the base and in field maneuvers, the
star observed, “The one thing I kept finding out about
these men and women is that they’re not just cardboard
Rambos.” He also noted, “The research I did made me

understand the importance of integrity.”
Released during the summer blockbuster season,
Courage under Fire had a lot of competition for moviego-
ers’ attention. Reviews of the film, including Denzel’s per-
formance in it, were mixed. However, Denzel received
yet another NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in
a Motion Picture, and he was also named NAACP Enter-
tainer of the Year.
Teaming with Whitney Houston

In 1996, Denzel co-starred with pop diva Whitney Hous-
ton in The Preacher’s Wife, a remake of the 1947 film The
Bishop’s Wife. In this film directed by Penny Marshall,
Denzel plays an angel named Dudley, who is sent to Earth
to help Reverend Henry Biggs with professional difficul-
ties and his troubled marriage to Julia (Houston), the con-
gregation’s choir director. Dudley charms Julia and wins
over the confidence of her young son. But he has more
trouble restoring Henry’s faith and helping him through
his many dilemmas.
For Denzel, The Preacher’s Wife was a refreshing change
of pace; for a rare occasion, he was not playing a brooding,
dramatic role. He reasoned, “I’ve done films with the edge,
drama, weight, and all that. I just thought we had an excel-
lent opportunity to talk about faith and family.”
With its stirring gospel score and many musical num-

bers performed by Houston and the impressive Georgia
Mass Choir, there were high expectations for The
Preacher’s Wife. However, the critical consensus was that
the good-hearted picture was too sweet and sentimental
and that its pacing often dragged. Also, there seemed to be
an essential lack of chemistry between Denzel and Whit-
ney, and some said Denzel did not provide quite the right
light touch in his performance.
One role Denzel vetoed in this period was 1997’s Amis-
tad, a big-budget tale of mutinous slaves in 19th-century
America. Washington said he turned down the lucrative
assignment because, “I ain’t putting no chains around my
neck. I’m not in the mood.”
Instead, Denzel moved on to a trio of features released
in 1998. First was the horror thriller Fallen. This film cast
Washington again as a police detective in pursuit of a
serial killer. Filled with endless plot complications, this
dark film about good forces versus evil demons was not
well received by critics or viewers.
After Fallen, Denzel turned to 1998’s He Got Game, his
third film with Spike Lee. In this drama written, directed,
and produced by Lee, Washington took a supporting role.
This film’s star was Rae Allen, a real-life basketball star
who plays Denzel’s on-screen son. The film tells the
story of a hugely talented high-school basketball champ,
his imprisoned father, and both of their plans for the

son’s future. The earnest film was not a major crowd
pleaser. However, for He Got Game, Denzel was nomi-
nated in the Best Actor category at the Acapulco Black
Film Festival and by the NAACP Image Awards, but lost
on both occasions. Regardless of the picture’s financial
and artistic outcome, Washington found the film’s dra-
matic themes stimulating. He also enjoyed the opportu-
nity to play basketball on camera.
Another Go at the Action Genre

Denzel was matched yet again with filmmaker Edward
Zwick for 20th Century Fox’s The Siege (1998). Denzel
shared screen time with Bruce Willis and Annette Bening
in this terrorist tale set in New York City.
Of more substance was The Bone Collector (1999), a
cop-versus–serial killer film with a twist. This plot gim-
mick provided Denzel with a major acting challenge. His
character, Lincoln Rhyme, a superior New York police
detective and forensic expert, has suffered an on-the-job
accident. He is now a quadriplegic, suffering from paral-
ysis of his body below the neck. Extremely depressed by
his plight, Rhyme contemplates suicide, but his spirits
are renewed when he helps a female investigator
(Angelina Jolie) solve a crime from the confines of his
apartment.
The artistic challenge for Washington was to make his

quadriplegic character—who only has the use of one index
finger—believable and dimensional. As part of building
his character, Denzel contacted actor Christopher Reeve
(star of the film Superman who became a quadriplegic) for
advice on performing this offbeat role. Although many
critics said the acting surpassed the film’s tired plot lines,
The Bone Collector did well in theaters and enabled Denzel
to tackle new acting challenges.
A Renewed Commitment
As the 1990s ended, Denzel took stock of his career. All of
his films since 1996’s Courage under Fire had received
mixed critical response and had not done stellar box-office
business. Mindful that, as a high-profile movie star earn-
ing more than $10 million for each of his big-budget vehi-
cles, he could quickly lose credibility with critics and
public alike, he decided to balance his film output with
more substantial vehicles. Now in his mid-40s, the popu-
lar Hollywood leading man told Premiere magazine in
December 1999, “Anything that I do now, it’s got to be
something that I want to do 100 percent.” He also
reflected, “This is an important and interesting time for
me.” He emphasized his point when he said, “I’ve gone all
the way around the block [with acting assignments], and
I’ve gotten back to the work.”
7
MAINTAINING
THE PACE
For Denzel, constantly finding new professional chal-
lenges and not becoming lazy from success were his most
imperative career guidelines. Fortunately, his next motion
picture would meet all his creative needs and moviegoers’
expectations . . . and then some.
The Hurricane
After tackling less-than-substantial film projects, Denzel
realized the career importance of his upcoming film role
in Universal’s The Hurricane (1999). For the part, Wash-
ington spent 15 months in heavy-duty training: He had to
lose more than 40 pounds and endure daily workouts for
his physically demanding role of Rubin “Hurricane”
Carter, a middleweight boxing champ.
Washington worked diligently with a boxing trainer—
former fight champ Terry Claybon—so that he would look
67
believable on camera in the boxing scenes. Denzel rea-

soned, if the audience “don’t buy that, you’re done.” By
the time filming began for The Hurricane, Denzel was in
the best physical shape of his life.
Working again with Norman Jewison (A Soldier’s Story),
Denzel portrays a real-life professional fighter who finds
himself in prison for crimes he insists he did not commit.
After Hurricane spends years in prison, a fifteen-year old
in Toronto becomes convinced of Hurricane’s innocence
and persuades his foster family to help him fight for the
Denzel lost more than 40 pounds and underwent intense

workouts for his role in The Hurricane. (Photofest)
Maintaining the Pace • 69
boxer’s release. After many setbacks, a federal court judge

in 1985 voids the athlete’s convictions as being unconsti-
tutional, and Hurricane is freed.
Stephen Holden (New York Times) was far more
impressed with Denzel’s compelling lead performance
than with the film as a whole: “Washington leans into an
otherwise schlocky movie and slams it out of the ball-
park. If his Hurricane is an inspiring portrait of nobility,
it is because the actor never conceals the demons of fury
and despair gnawing beneath his character’s forcefully
articulate surface.”
Made for $38 million, The Hurricane took in $50.7 mil-
lion in domestic distribution. Denzel received an Acad-
emy Award nomination for Best Actor for the role.
However, media articles appeared that criticized the
screen biography for being a highly fictionalized, abbre-
viated account of the legal injustice in Rubin Carter’s
conviction and the real part that racial prejudice had
played in the man’s fate. The controversy over the film’s
portrayal of these issues—none of which altered the fact
that the man had been wrongly sent to prison—became
a distracting issue in the minds of many viewers. Some
observers insist this was a key reason why Denzel lost
the Oscar that year. Washington, however, did win,
among other prizes, a Golden Globe and an NAACP
Image Award.
Another Sports Film

Moving on to a less controversial film assignment, Denzel
next starred in Walt Disney Pictures’ Remember the Titans
(2000). Based on a true story, the film is set in 1971 in
Alexandria, Virginia, where federal law had ordered that
a local high school be racially integrated. As part of the
revamped school system, Herman Boone (played by
Washington) is selected to be head coach over his white
counterpart, which causes a tidal wave of local resent-
ment. During the difficult year ahead, Denzel’s no-non-
sense but compassionate character deals—both at school
and in the community—with racial tension as the towns-
folk cope with an integrated way of daily life. However, as
Washington’s football squad of black and white students
learns to work in harmony, the locals begin to abandon
some of their discriminatory ways.
Many critics claimed that Remember the Titans was too
sentimental, but many praised Denzel’s performance.
Mick LaSalle (San Francisco Chronicle ) noted, “As played
by Washington, Boone is more than tough. He is a man of
keen observation and restraint, and some of the film’s
best moments provide a glimpse into his inner world.”
Washington so believed in this inspirational project that
he took a pay cut so that Remember the Titans could be
made within its $30 million budget. Having coached his
youngsters’ sports teams over the years, the star felt com-
fortable in his role of Coach Boone who gains insight into

his own life by motivating his high-spirited team. For his
heartfelt performance, Denzel won in the Best Actor cat-
egory from the Black Entertainment Awards, the Black
Reel Awards, and the NAACP Image Awards.
Claiming Another Oscar

Over his lengthy screen career Denzel had most fre-
quently been cast as the well-meaning, noble soul. This
was definitely not the case with his role in Training Day
(2001), a gripping Warner Bros. crime thriller. While Wash-
ington again appeared as a police officer, this time he was
a corrupt undercover narcotics cop. To highlight this
change-of-pace acting assignment for filmgoers, Denzel’s
Alonzo Harris is outfitted in black, wears thick jewelry,
and sports a tattoo which contains his creed for life: DEATH
IS CERTAIN. LIFE IS NOT.
The hard-hitting, brutal film follows Alonzo through a

wild day in his life as part of an elite Los Angeles police
unit. He is joined by a white rookie cop (played by Ethan
Hawke) who is a candidate to join Harris’s special group
of law enforcers. As the duo make their rounds, the new-
comer concludes that Alonzo may well be as vicious and
crooked as the ferocious lawbreakers they are hunting.
Eventually, Alonzo’s bad karma catches up with him as he
seeks to outmaneuver Russian mobsters.
Ethan Hawke and Denzel in Training Day (Photofest)
Whatever faults critics found with Training Day, there

was strong appreciation for Denzel’s intense perform-
ance. Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times) admitted, “For its
kinetic energy and acting zeal, I enjoyed the movie. I
like it when actors go for broke.” Kim Newman (Sight and
Sound) applauded Washington’s “spellbinding villain,”
Amy Taubin (Village Voice) pointed out, “Actors always
have more fun playing bad guys—and in Washington’s
case, it must be particularly liberating not to bear the
weight of being a black role model. . . . You have to
admire the risk he takes in turning his star image upside
down; nevertheless, it’s creepy to think that the hero you
believed in for so many movies may be just as much a fic-

tion as the villain.”
Shot on location in the grimier parts of Los Angeles,
Washington took on this atypical role with great enthusiasm.
He became so in tune with his alter ego that he improvised
much of his fast-paced dialogue as he led the young cop
(and the audience) through a shocking tour of the criminal
underworld. As a way to constantly keep himself in the
mindset of his offbeat character, the actor scribbled a note
to himself in his script: “The wages of sin [are] death.” These
words, he later recalled, helped him a great deal with his dis-
tinctive performance: “Every time I looked at those words,
I felt like I could be as wicked as I wanted to be because I
know what was coming [for my character]” When asked
why he had taken on this unusual part, he explained, “I
think it’s good to get a bad guy in there to mix up my image.”
Training Day proved to be a medium box-office winner
but a critical favorite. Besides earning his second Acad-
emy Award—his first in the Best Actor category—Wash-
ington won trophies from several film critics groups, as
well as the NAACP Image Award. At the MTV Awards,
Denzel was named Best Villain of the Year.
Denzel as Everyman
Having proved his point that he could be more versatile
on screen than his good-guy roles had previously allowed,
Denzel returned to form in John Q (2002). The film is an

impassioned account about the need for health-care
reform, a subject with which Denzel greatly empathized.
The New Line Cinema release is about a Chicago factory
worker who is a devoted husband and father. When his
nine-year-old son suffers a seizure, John Quincy
Archibald (played by Denzel) discovers that, because he
does not have sufficient health-care coverage, his boy can-
not have a needed emergency heart transplant. Desperate
to save his boy’s life, and having exhausted all options to
raise the needed funds, Washington’s character takes the
hospital’s chief cardiac surgeon hostage and demands that
his dying child be placed on the donor recipient list. Not
yielding to the pressures of the police negotiator and the
law enforcers surrounding the facility—or to the media
frenzy that has developed over the situation—Archibald
stays firm in his goal.
Claudia Puig (USA Today) related well to the movie’s
premise: “If you’re privileged, you’ll get the medical help
you need, but that’s not the case for the common man.” As
for the star, she judged, “It’s a testament to his talents that
the movie doesn’t lapse into an ER-like, tear-inducing
episode. Washington’s character is the ultimate super-
dad—a manipulative device—but we would have been
rooting for him anyway.” This review suggested that, by
now, audiences of any race or economic standing were
more than willing to identify with the characters whom

Denzel played.
Reaching Out Artistically

Many established film actors—ranging from Sidney
Poitier to Clint Eastwood to Mel Gibson—reach the point
in their acting careers when they feel the need for fresh
creative stimulus. Often, they turn to directing a movie as
a new artistic challenge. In Denzel Washington’s case, he
chose to direct Antwone Fisher (2002).
His production company, Mundy Lane Entertainment,
in conjunction with 20th Century Fox, made this real-life
drama derived from Antwone Fisher’s book (Finding Fish)
and screenplay. The movie concerns a young U.S. Navy
ensign who has violently attacked people without provo-
cation. His superior officers send him for counseling with
a Navy psychiatrist (Washington). The therapist delves into
his patient’s childhood and the traumatic events that
occurred then, pushing the young man to confront his
repressed memories. This process helps not only the
patient, but it enables the psychiatrist to work through
domestic issues in his own marriage.
Denzel’s directorial debut was generally well received.
Ann Hornaday (Washington Post) said, “The directorial debut
of Denzel Washington . . . is a piece of controlled, adroit film-
making, as notable for what it doesn’t do as for what it does
Denzel was behind the camera as director for the first time in
Antwone Fisher. (Photofest)
so well. . . . Washington ensures that what could have been

a mawkish melodrama is instead a riveting story well told.”
Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times) approved that the on-
screen “relationship between the two men is handled by
Washington, as the director, with close and caring atten-
tion.” Stephen Holden (New York Times) assessed, “As a
director Mr. Washington shows a confident grasp of cine-
matic narrative in a hearty meat-and-potatoes style. But the
most remarkable aspect of his behind-the-camera debut is
his brilliantly surefooted handling of actors.”
Antwone Fisher won several nominations and awards,
especially for its young lead’s breakthrough performance.
Denzel took home three NAACP Image Awards for his
work in 2002: one for his role in John Q and one each for
starring in and directing Antwone Fisher, which was
named outstanding motion picture. For Denzel, this film-
making experience proved that his talents extended
behind the camera, and he has indicated that he will
direct other features in the years to come, but he would
prefer next time not to direct himself. He found that too
distracting on Antwone Fisher.
Keeping in the Game

Meanwhile, to balance his directorial endeavors, Denzel
returned to being a leading man in MGM’s Out of Time
(2003), working again with director Carl Franklin (Devil in
a Blue Dress). The entry

updated the classic 1948
film noir The Big Clock.
Set in small-town Florida
where Washington’s Matt
Lee Whitlock is police
chief, the plot shifts into
gear when the lawman
steals drug money to pay
for his mistress’s experi-
mental cancer treatment.
Later, he finds himself
accused of murdering the
woman and her husband,
In 2003, Denzel received three especially since he was
NAACP Image Awards for his named her beneficiary in
acting and directorial efforts. a large insurance policy.
(Landov)
To make matters more
complex, the policeman’s
estranged wife is investigating the case.
Elvis Mitchell (New York Times) found the film “shallow”
and “empty.” However, the reviewer acknowledged that
the star plays “the desperation well.” Michael Wilmington
(Chicago Tribune) reported, “Washington is a good center
for this type of movie. He’s able to simultaneously project
intelligence, strength and vulnerability while also reveal-
ing the devilish streak that took over Training Day.” Wilm-
ington also pointed out, “He can get a cunning, menacing
edge that makes him a model bad guy. That helps his per-
formance here, and it also helps that he’s a black police
chief in a white town, with a white sidekick, because he’s
able to play a natural outsider, seemingly both menacing
and menaced.”
Shot on location in Florida, the $50 million thriller was
not the commercial success anticipated, but Denzel was
praised for once again being able to work with some of the
darker qualities he exhibited in Training Day.
Looking Ahead
Approaching age 50, Denzel continued onward with his
lucrative career as an A-list film star. In Man on Fire
(2004), he was cast as an ex-special forces soldier who
vows vengeance on those who kidnapped the little girl he
was hired to protect. For Paramount’s The Manchurian
Candidate (2004), Washington inherited Frank Sinatra’s
original role as the investigating hero of U.S. soldiers who
are kidnapped and brainwashed during (in the updated
version) the Gulf War.
In assessing Denzel’s role as a long-term box-office mag-
net, Alan J. Pakula, who directed 1993’s The Pelican Brief,
once said, “A lot of actors need to prove something. I don’t
feel that with Denzel. He doesn’t have that torture, that
self-doubt you find in some actors. Maybe it’s a sense of

self-belief.” It is also that the star has a realistic attitude
about each movie he makes, no matter how much energy,
hard work, and emotion he may have invested in the part.
He reasons that making a film is “just like a muffin. You
make it. You put it on the table. One person might say,
‘Oh, I don’t like it.’ One might say it’s the best muffin ever
made. One might say it’s an awful muffin. It’s hard for me
to say. It’s for me to make the muffin.”
Washington, who remains very family oriented, admits
that his years of marriage and parenting have improved
Denzel and his wife, Pauletta Washington (Landov)

his acting skills. He says, “I think that fatherhood has

loosened me up. I think I’ve always been funny. It has to
do with the way I trained as an actor. I started off, I cut my
teeth on Othello and Eugene O’Neill and Strindberg and A
Soldier’s Play, that’s what I became because that’s what I
did. When someone in your youth calls you a ‘serious
actor,’ you say, ‘Yes, I am.’ As you get older, you learn how
to simply live your life. I used to be more brooding. I
think, than I am now.” He also maintains, “Whatever gifts
I have been given, I work from the inside out, not from
the outside in. I’m not a look. I’m an actor.” He also
emphasizes, “I enjoy acting—this is when I feel more nat-
ural. This is really my world.”
Denzel still maintains that he is not a black role model,
but, rather, that he wants to be considered a professional
actor who has helped to break down racial barriers. He
insists that years of praise have not gone to his head: “I try
to be ego-less, if there is such a thing. I try to stay humble
and hungry . . . just hungry to be good at my job. A little
hunger is good for you.”
Once, when asked what epitaph he would like on his
tombstone, the superstar said, “Hard work is good
enough.”
TIME LINE
1954 Born in Mount Vernon, New York, on December 28,

the second of three children
1968 Parents divorce; Denzel attends Oakland Academy

in New Windsor, New York
1972 Graduates from Oakland Academy; enrolls at

Fordham University, where he leaves during sopho-
more year but returns to complete his education,
majoring in journalism and drama
1977 Has first professional acting role, in TV movie

Wilma (NBC-TV), during the production of which he
meets actress/musician Pauletta Pearson; graduates
from Fordham; relocates to San Francisco to study
at the American Conservatory Theater (ACT)
1978 Drops out of ACT; after a brief stay in Los Angeles

to search for a job, returns to New York where he is
cast in several off-Broadway theater productions
82
Time Line • 83
1979 Featured in the television film Flesh and Blood

(CBS-TV)
1981 Stars off-Broadway as Malcolm X in When the

Chickens Come Home to Roost and wins an Audelco
Award; earns an Obie Award for his performance in
A Soldier’s Play; co-stars in first theatrical feature
film, Carbon Copy (Avco-Embassy)
1982 Begins six-season run as Dr. Phillip Chandler on TV

series St. Elsewhere (NBC-TV)
1983 Weds Pauletta Pearson
1984 Co-stars in TV movie License to Kill (CBS-TV) and

feature film A Soldier’s Story (Columbia); son John
David born
1986 Has title role in television feature The George

McKenna Story (CBS-TV) and is featured in the film
Power (20th Century Fox)
1987 Nominated for an Academy Award for Best

Supporting Actor in Cry Freedom (Universal)
1988 Stars in For Queen and Country (Atlantic Releasing);

daughter Katia is born
1989 Has leading role in The Mighty Quinn (MGM); wins

Academy Award, Golden Globe, and NAACP Image
Award for his supporting role in Glory (TriStar)
1990 Appears in Heart Condition (New Line Cinema) and

in Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues (Universal); forms
Mundy Lane Entertainment production company
1991 Mississippi Masala (Samuel Goldwyn) and Ricochet

(Warner Bros.) are released; twins Malcolm and
Olivia are born; Denzel’s father dies
1992 Nominated for an Academy Award and Golden

Globe for Malcolm X (Warner Bros.); wins several
prizes for Best Actor including the NAACP Image
Award, the Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear Award,
and the MTV Movie Award
1993 Much Ado About Nothing (Samuel Goldwyn), The

Pelican Brief (Warner Bros.), and Philadelphia
(TriStar) are released
1995 For Crimson Tide (Hollywood) Denzel receives an

NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor; stars
in Virtuosity (Paramount); stars/produces Devil in a
Blue Dress (TriStar)
1996 For Courage under Fire (20th Century Fox) earns a

NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor;
stars/produces The Preacher’s Wife (Touchstone)
1998 Fallen (Warner Bros.), He Got Game (Touchstone),

and Siege (20th Century Fox) are released; named
Time Line • 85
one of top 10 most popular film stars by the Harris

Poll
1999 The Bone Collector (Columbia/Universal) appears;

for The Hurricane (Universal) he is nominated for a
Best Actor Academy Award and wins a Golden
Globe and an NAACP Image Award
2000 Remember the Titans (Walt Disney) distributed;

wins an NAACP Image Award
2001 Training Day (Warner Bros) released, which leads to

Best Actor Academy Award, an NAACP Image
Award, and other accolades
2002 Stars in John Q (New Line Cinema); makes feature

film directing debut with Antwone Fisher (20th
Century Fox)
2003 Out of Time (MGM) distributed; wins three NAACP

Image Awards for his role in John Q and for star-
ring in and directing Antwone Fisher
2004 Stars in Man on Fire (20th Century Fox) and The

Manchurian Candidate (Paramount); in production
to star in The Blue (Universal), a comedy/thriller,
and is scheduled to direct The Great Debaters, as
well as produce/direct a screen biography of the
late entertainer Sammy Davis Jr.
HOW TO
BECOME AN
ACTOR
THE JOB
The imitation or basic development of a character for
presentation to an audience may seem like a glamorous
and fairly easy job. In reality, it is demanding, tiring work
that requires a special talent.
An actor must first find an available part in an upcom-
ing production. This may be in a comedy, drama, musical,
or opera. Then, having read and studied the part, the actor
must audition before the director and other people who
have control of the production. This requirement is often
waived for established artists. In film and television,
actors must also complete screen tests, which are scenes
recorded on film, at times performed with other actors,
86
How to Become an Actor • 87
which are later viewed by the director and producer(s) of

the film.
If selected for the part, the actor must spend hundreds
of hours in rehearsal and must memorize many lines and
cues. This is especially true in live theater; in film and tel-
evision actors may spend less time in rehearsal and some-
times improvise their lines before the camera, often
performing several attempts, or “takes,” before the direc-
tor is satisfied. Television actors often take advantage of
TelePrompTers, which scroll lines on a screen in front of
performing actors. Radio actors generally read from a
script, and therefore their rehearsal times are usually
shorter.
In addition to such mechanical duties, the actor must
determine the essence of the character he or she is audi-
tioning for, and the relation of that character to the over-
all scheme of the production. Radio actors must be
especially skilled in expressing character and emotion
through voice alone. In many film and theater roles actors
must also sing and dance and spend additional time
rehearsing songs and perfecting choreography. Certain
roles require actors to perform various stunts, some of
which can be quite dangerous. Specially trained perform-
ers usually complete these stunts. Others work as stand-
ins or body doubles. These actors are chosen for specific
features and appear on film in place of the lead actor;
this is often the case in films requiring nude or seminude

scenes. Many television programs, such as game shows,
also feature models, who generally assist the host of the
program.
Actors in the theater may perform the same part many
times a week for weeks, months, and sometimes years.
This allows them to develop the role, but it can also
become tedious. Actors in films may spend several weeks
involved in a production, which often takes place on loca-
tion (that is, in different parts of the world). Television
actors involved in a series, such as a soap opera or a situ-
ation comedy, also may play the same role for years, gen-
erally in 13-week cycles. For these actors, however, their
lines change from week to week and even from day to
day, and much time is spent rehearsing their new lines.
While studying and perfecting their craft, many actors
work as extras, the nonspeaking characters who appear in
the background on screen or stage. Many actors also con-
tinue training throughout their careers. A great deal of an
actor’s time is spent attending auditions.
REQUIREMENTS
High School
There are no minimum educational requirements to
become an actor. However, at least a high school diploma
is recommended. In high-school English classes you will
learn about the history of drama and the development of

strong characters. Take music classes to help you develop
your voice and ability to read music, which are valuable
skills for any actor, even those who do not perform many
musical roles.
Postsecondary Training
A college degree is becoming a great asset to those who
hope to have an acting career. An actor who has com-
pleted a liberal arts program is thought to be more capa-
ble of understanding the wide variety of roles that are
available. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that
aspiring actors complete at least a bachelor’s degree pro-
gram in theater or the dramatic arts. In addition, gradu-
ate degrees in the fine arts or in drama are nearly
always required should the individual decide to teach
dramatic arts.
College can also provide acting experience for the hope-
ful actor. More than 500 colleges and universities through-
out the country offer dramatic-arts programs and present
theatrical performances. Actors and directors recommend
that those students interested in acting gain as much
experience as possible through acting in high school and
college plays or in those offered by community groups.
Training beyond college is recommended, especially for
actors interested in entering the theater. Joining acting
workshops, such as the Actors Studio, can often be highly

competitive.
Other Requirements
Prospective actors will be required not only to have a great
talent for acting but also a strong determination to suc-
ceed in the theater and motion pictures. They must be
able to memorize hundreds of lines and should have a
good speaking voice. The ability to sing and dance is
important for increasing the opportunities for the young
actor. Almost all actors are required to audition for a part
before they receive the role. In film and television actors
will generally complete screen tests to see how they
appear on film. In all fields of acting, a love of performing
is a must. It might take many years for an actor to achieve
any success, if they achieve it at all.
Performers on the Broadway stage must be members of
the Actors’ Equity Association before being cast. While
union membership may not always be required, many
actors find it advantageous to belong to a union that cov-
ers their particular field of performing arts. These organ-
izations include the Actors’ Equity Association (stage),
Screen Actors Guild or Screen Extras Guild (motion pic-
tures and television films), or American Federation of
Television and Radio Artists (TV, recording, and radio). In
addition, some actors may benefit from membership in
the American Guild of Variety Artists (nightclubs and so

on), American Guild of Musical Artists (opera and ballet),
or organizations such as the Hebrew Actors Union or Ital-
ian Actors Union for productions in those languages.
EXPLORING
The best way to explore this career is to participate in
school or local theater productions. Even working on the
props or lighting crew will provide insight into the field.
Also, attend as many dramatic productions as possible
and try to talk with people who either are currently in the
theater or have been at one time. They can offer advice to
individuals interested in a career in the theater.
There are many books about acting that concern not
only how to perform, but also the nature of the work, its
offerings, advantages, and disadvantages.
EMPLOYERS
Motion pictures, television, and the stage are the largest
fields of employment for actors, with television com-
mercials representing as much as 60 percent of all acting
jobs. Most of the opportunities for employment in these
fields are either in Los Angeles or in New York. On the
stage, even road shows often have their beginning in
New York, with the selection of actors conducted there
along with rehearsals. However, nearly every city and
most communities present local and regional theater

productions.
As cable-television networks continue to produce more
and more of their own programs and films, they will
become major providers of employment for actors. Home
video will also continue to create new acting jobs, as will
the music video business.
The lowest numbers of actors are employed by stage
productions. In addition to Broadway shows and regional
theater, there are employment opportunities for stage
actors in summer stock, at resorts, and on cruise ships.
STARTING OUT
Probably the best way to enter acting is to start with high
school, local, or college productions and to gain as much
experience as possible on that level. Very rarely is an inex-
perienced actor given an opportunity to perform on stage
or in a film in New York or Hollywood. The field is
extremely difficult to enter; the more experience and abil-
ity beginners have, however, the greater the possibilities
for entrance.
Those venturing to New York or Hollywood are
encouraged first to have enough money to support them-
selves during the long waiting and searching period nor-
mally required before a job is found. Most will list
themselves with a casting agency that will help them
find a part as an extra or a bit player, either in theater or

film. These agencies keep names on file along with pho-
tographs and a description of the individual’s features
and experience, and if a part comes along that may be
suitable, they contact that person. Very often, however,
names are added to their lists only when the number of
people in a particular physical category is low. For
instance, the agency may not have enough athletic
young women on its roster, and if the applicant happens
to fit this description, her name is added.
ADVANCEMENT
New actors will normally start with bit parts and will have
only a few lines to speak, if any. The normal progression
would then be landing larger supporting roles and then, in
the case of theater, possibly a role as an understudy for
one of the main actors. The understudy usually has an
opportunity to fill in should the main actor be unable to
give a performance. Many film and television actors get
their start in commercials or by appearing in government
and commercially sponsored public-service announce-
ments, films, and programs. Other actors join the after-
noon soap operas and continue on to evening programs.
Many actors also have started in on-camera roles such as
presenting the weather segment of a local news program.
Once an actor has gained experience, he or she may go on
to play stronger supporting roles or even leading roles in

stage, television, or film productions. From there, an actor
may go on to stardom. Only a very small number of actors
ever reach that pinnacle, however.
Some actors eventually go into related occupations
and become drama coaches, drama teachers, producers,
stage directors, motion-picture directors, television
directors, radio directors, stage managers, casting direc-
tors, or artist and repertoire managers. Others may com-
bine one or more of these functions while continuing
their careers.
EARNINGS
The wage scale for actors is largely controlled through
bargaining agreements reached by various unions in nego-
tiations with producers. These agreements normally con-
trol the minimum salaries, hours of work permitted per
week, and other conditions of employment. In addition,
each artist enters into a separate contract that may pro-
vide for higher salaries.
In 2003 the minimum daily salary of any member of the
Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in a speaking role was $678, or
$2,352 for a five-day workweek. Motion-picture actors
may also receive additional payments known as residuals
as part of their guaranteed salary. Many motion-picture
actors receive residuals whenever films, TV shows, and
TV commercials in which they appear are rerun, sold for

TV exhibition, or put on DVD. Residuals often exceed the
actor’s original salary and account for about one-third of
all actors’ income.
According to the Actors’ Equity Association, the mini-
mum weekly salary for actors in a Broadway production
was $1,354 in 2003. Actors performing in off-Broadway
performance had weekly salaries that ranged from $479 to
$557 in 2003. Regional theaters that operate under Equity
pay actors $531–$800 a week; those that tour with a show
are given an extra $111 per week for living expenses.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the median
yearly earning of all actors was $23,470 in 2002. The
department also reported the lowest paid 10 percent
earned less than $13,330 annually, while the highest paid
10 percent made more than $106,360.
The annual earnings of persons in television and
movies are affected by frequent periods of unemploy-
ment. According to SAG, most of its members earn less
than $5,000 a year from acting jobs. Unions offer health,
welfare, and pension funds for members working more
than a set number of weeks a year. Some actors are eligi-
ble for paid vacation and sick time, depending on the
work contract.
In all fields, well-known actors have salary rates above
the minimums, and the salaries of the few top stars are
many times higher. Actors in television series may earn

tens of thousands of dollars per week, while a few may
earn as much as $1 million or more per week. Salaries for
these actors vary considerably and are negotiated indi-
vidually. In film, top stars may earn as much as $20 mil-
lion per film, and, after receiving a percentage of the gross
earned by the film, these stars can earn far, far more.
Until recent years, female film stars tended to earn
lower salaries than their male counterparts; stars such as
Julia Roberts, Jodie Foster, Halle Berry, and others have
started to reverse that trend. The average annual earnings
for all motion-picture actors, however, are usually low for
all but the best-known performers because of the periods
of unemployment.
WORK ENVIRONMENT
Actors work under varying conditions. Those employed in
motion pictures may work in air-conditioned studios one
week and be on location in a hot desert the next.
Those in stage productions perform under all types of
conditions. The number of hours employed per day or
week varies, as does the number of weeks employed per
year. Stage actors normally perform eight shows per week
with any additional performances paid for as overtime.
The basic workweek after the show opens is about 36
hours unless major changes in the play are needed. The
number of hours worked per week is considerably more

before the opening because of rehearsals. Evening work is
a natural part of a stage actor’s life. Rehearsals often are
held at night and over holidays and weekends. If the play
goes on the road, much traveling will be involved.
A number of actors cannot receive unemployment com-
pensation when they are waiting for their next part, pri-
marily because they have not worked enough to meet the
minimum eligibility requirements for compensation. Sick
leaves and paid vacations are not usually available to the
actor. However, union actors who earn the minimum
qualifications now receive full medical and health insur-
ance under all the actors’ unions. Those who earn health-
plan benefits for 10 years become eligible for a pension
upon retirement. The acting field is very uncertain. Aspi-
rants never know whether they will be able to get into the
profession, and, once in, there are uncertainties as to
whether the show will be well received and, if not,
whether the actor’s reputation can survive a badly
received show.
OUTLOOK
Employment in acting is expected to grow at an average
rate through 2012, according to the U.S. Department of
Labor. Although people will always be attracted to this
profession, and although there will always be positions
available, many will pursue other career paths because of

the fierce competition and relatively low pay. However,
the growth of satellite and cable television in the past
decade has created a demand for more actors, especially
as the cable networks produce more and more of their
own programs and films. The rise of home video and DVD
has also created new acting jobs, as more and more films
are made strictly for the home-video market. Many resorts
built in the 1980s and 1990s present their own theatrical
productions, providing more job opportunities for actors.
Jobs in theater, however, face pressure as the cost of
mounting a production increases and many nonprofit and
smaller theaters lose their funding.
Despite the growth in opportunities, there are many
more actors than there are roles, and this is likely to
remain true for years to come. This is true in all areas of
the arts, including radio, television, motion pictures, and
theater, and even those who are employed are typically
employed during only a small portion of the year. Many
actors must supplement their income by working at other
jobs, as secretaries, waiters, or taxi drivers, for example.
Almost all performers are members of more than one
union in order to take advantage of various opportunities
as they become available.
It should be recognized that of the 105,000 or so actors in
the United States today, a much smaller number are
employed at any one time. Of these, few are able to support

themselves on their earnings from acting, and fewer still
will ever achieve stardom. Most actors work for many years
before becoming known, and most of these do not rise
above supporting roles. The vast majority of actors, mean-
while, are still looking for their big break. There are many
more applicants in all areas than there are positions. As
with most careers in the arts, people enter this one out of
a genuine love for the field.
TO LEARN
MORE ABOUT
ACTORS
BOOKS
Bruder, Melissa. A Practical Handbook for the Actor. New
York: Vintage, 1986.
Lee, Robert L. Everything about Theater!: The Guidebook of
Theater Fundamentals. Colorado Springs, Colo.: Meri-
wether, 1996.
Quinlan, Kathryn A. Actor. Mankato, Minn.: Capstone
Press, 1998.
Stevens, Chambers. Magnificent Monologues for Kids. South
Pasadena, Calif.: Sandcastle, 1999.
100
To Learn More about Actors • 101
WEBSITES AND ORGANIZATIONS

The Actors’ Equity Association is a professional union for
actors in theater and “live” industrial productions, stage
managers, some directors, and choreographers.
Actors’ Equity Association
165 West 46th Street
New York, NY 10036
Tel: 212-869-8530
E-mail: info@actorsequity.org
http://www.actorsequity.org
This union represents television and radio performers,

including actors, announcers, dancers, disc jockeys,
newspersons, singers, specialty acts, sportscasters, and
stuntpersons.
American Federation of Television and
Radio Artists
260 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212-532-0800
E-mail: aftra@aftra.com
http://www.aftra.com
A directory of theatrical programs may be purchased from

National Association of Schools of Theater (NAST). For
answers to a number of frequently asked questions con-

cerning education, visit the NAST website.
National Association of Schools of Theater
(NAST)
11250 Roger Bacon Drive, Suite 21
Reston, VA 20190
Tel: 703-437-0700
E-mail: info@arts-accredit.org
http://www.arts-accredit.org/nast
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) provides general informa-

tion on actors, directors, and producers. Visit the SAG web-
site for more information.
Screen Actors Guild (SAG)
5757 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Tel: 323-954-1600
http://www.sag.com
For information about opportunities in not-for-profit the-

aters, contact the Theatre Communications Group.
Theatre Communications Group
355 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Tel: 212-697-5230
To Learn More about Actors • 103
E-mail: tcg@tcg.org
http://www.tcg.org
This site has information for beginners on acting and the

acting business.
Acting Workshop On-Line
http://www.redbirdstudio.com/AWOL/acting2.html
HOW TO
BECOME A
PRODUCER
THE JOB
The primary role of a producer is to organize and secure
the financial backing necessary to undertake a motion
picture project. The director, by contrast, creates the film
from the screenplay. Despite this general distinction, the
producer often takes part in creative decisions, and occa-
sionally one person is both the producer and director. On
some small projects, such as a nature or historical docu-
mentary for a public-television broadcast, the producer
might also be the writer and cameraman.
The job of a producer generally begins in the prepro-
duction stage of filmmaking with the selection of a movie
idea from a script or other material. Some films are made
104
How to Become a Producer • 105
from original screenplays, while others are adapted from

books. If a book is selected, the producer must first pur-
chase the rights from the author or his or her publishing
company, and a writer must be hired to adapt the book
into a screenplay format. Producers are usually inun-
dated with scripts from writers and others who have ideas
for a movie. Producers may have their own ideas for a
motion picture and will hire a writer to write the screen-
play. Occasionally a studio will approach a producer, typ-
ically a producer who has had many commercially or
artistically successful films in the past, with a project.
After selecting a project, the producer will find a direc-
tor, the technical staff, and the leading actor or actors to
participate in the film. Along with the script and screen-
writer, these essential people are referred to as the pack-
age. Packaging is sometimes arranged with the help of
talent agencies. It is the package that the producer tries
to sell to an investor to obtain the necessary funds to
finance the salaries and cost of the film.
There are three common sources for financing a film:
major studios, production companies, and individual
investors. A small number of producers have enough
money to pay for their own projects. Major studios are the
largest source of money, and they finance most of the big-
budget films. Although some studios have full-time pro-
ducers on staff, they hire self-employed, or independent
producers, for many projects. Large production compa-

nies often have the capital resources to fund projects that
they feel will be commercially successful. On the smaller
end of the scale, producers of documentary films com-
monly approach individual donors; foundations; art agen-
cies of federal, state, and local governments; and even
family members and churches. The National Endowment
for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the
Arts are major federal benefactors of cinema.
Raising money from individual investors can occupy
much of the producer’s time. Fund-raising may be done on
the telephone, as well as in conferences, business lunches,
and even at parties. The producer may also look for a dis-
tributor for the film even before the production begins.
Obtaining the necessary financing does not guarantee a
film will be made. After raising the money, the producer
takes the basic plan of the package and tries to work it into
a developed project. The script may be rewritten several
times, the full cast of actors is hired, salaries are negoti-
ated, and logistical problems, such as the location of the
filming, are worked out. On some projects it might be the
director who handles these tasks, or the director may
work with the producer. Most major film projects do not
get beyond this complicated stage of development.
During the production phase, the producer tries to
keep the project on schedule and the spending within the
established budget. Other production tasks include the

review of dailies, which are the prints of the day’s film-
ing. As the head of the project, the producer is ultimately
responsible for resolving all problems, including conflicts
such as those between the director and an actor, and the
director and the studio. If the film is successfully com-
pleted, the producer monitors its distribution and may
participate in the publicity and advertising of the film.
To accomplish the many and varied tasks the position
requires, producers hire a number of subordinates, such as
associate producers, sometimes called coproducers, line pro-
ducers, and production assistants. Job titles, however, vary
from project to project. In general, associate producers work
directly under the producer and oversee the major areas of
the project, such as the budget. Line producers handle the
day-to-day operations of the project. Production assistants
may perform substantive tasks, such as reviewing scripts,
but others are hired to run errands. Another title, executive
producer, often refers to the person who puts up the money,
such as a studio executive, but it is sometimes an honorary
title with no functional relevance to the project.
REQUIREMENTS
There is no minimum educational requirement for
becoming a producer. Many producers, however, are col-
lege graduates, and many also have a business degree or
other previous business experience. They must not only

be talented salespeople and administrators but also have
a thorough understanding of film and motion-picture tech-
nology. Such understanding, of course, only comes from
experience.
High School
High school courses that will be of assistance to you in
your work as a producer include speech, mathematics,
business, psychology, and English.
Postsecondary Training
Formal study of film, television, communications, the-
ater, writing, English literature, or art is helpful, as the
producer must have the background to know whether an
idea or script is worth pursuing. Many entry-level posi-
tions in the film industry are given to people who have
studied liberal arts, cinema, or both.
In the United States there are more than 1,000 col-
leges, universities, and trade schools that offer classes
in film or television studies; more than 120 of these
offer undergraduate programs, and more than 50 grant
master’s degrees. A small number of Ph.D. programs
also exist.
Graduation from a film or television course of study does
not guarantee employment in the industry. Some programs
are quite expensive, costing more than $50,000 in tuition

alone for three years of study. Others do not have the
resources to allow all students to make their own films.
Programs in Los Angeles and New York, the major cen-
ters of the entertainment industry, may provide the best
opportunities for making contacts that can be of benefit
when seeking employment.
Other Requirements
Producers come from a wide variety of backgrounds.
Some start out as magazine editors, business-school grad-
uates, actors, or secretaries, messengers, and production
assistants for a film studio. Many have never formally
studied film.
Most producers, however, get their position through
several years of experience in the industry, perseverance,
and a keen sense for what projects will be artistically and
commercially successful.
EXPLORING
There are many ways to gain experience in filmmaking.
Some high schools have film and video clubs, for example,
or courses on the use of motion-picture equipment. Expe-
rience in high school or college theater can also be useful.
One of the best ways to gain experience is to volunteer for
a student or low-budget film project; positions on such
projects are often advertised in local trade publications.

Community cable stations also hire volunteers and may
even offer internships.
EMPLOYERS
Many producers in the field are self-employed. Others
are salaried employees of film companies, television net-
works, and television stations. The greatest concentration
of motion picture producers is in Hollywood and New
York. Hollywood alone has more than 2,000 producers.
STARTING OUT
Becoming a producer is similar to becoming president of
a company. Unless a person is independently wealthy
and can finance whichever projects he or she chooses,
prior experience in the field is necessary. Because there
are so few positions, even with experience it is extremely
difficult to become a successful producer.
Most motion-picture producers have attained their posi-
tion only after years of moving up the industry ladder.
Thus, it is important to concentrate on immediate goals,
such as getting an entry-level position in a film company.
Some enter the field by getting a job as a production assis-
tant. An entry-level production assistant may photocopy
the scripts for actors to use, assist in setting up equip-
ment, or perform other menial tasks, often for very little
or even no pay. While a production assistant’s work is

often tedious and of seemingly little reward, it neverthe-
less does expose one to the intricacies of filmmaking and,
more important, creates an opportunity to make contacts
with others in the industry.
Those interested in the field should approach film
companies, television stations, or the television net-
works about employment opportunities as a production
assistant. Small television stations often provide the best
opportunity for those who are interested in television
production. Positions may also be listed in trade publi-
cations.
ADVANCEMENT
There is little room for advancement because producers
are at the top of their profession. Advancement for pro-
ducers is generally measured by the types of projects they
do, increased earnings, and respect in the field. At televi-
sion stations, a producer can advance to program director.
Some producers become directors or make enough money
to finance their own projects.
EARNINGS
Producers are generally paid a percentage of the project’s
profits or a fee negotiated between the producer and a stu-
dio. The U.S. Department of Labor reports that producers
and directors earned average salaries of $46,240 in 2002.

Salaries ranged from less than $23,300 to more than
$119,760. Producers of highly successful films can earn
$200,000 or more, while those who make low-budget or
documentary films might earn considerably less than the
average. In general, producers in the film industry earn
more than television producers. The U.S. Department of
Labor reports that producers employed in the motion-pic-
ture industry had average earnings of $56,090 in 2002,
while those employed in television broadcasting averaged
$38,480.
WORK ENVIRONMENT
Producers have greater control over their working condi-
tions than most other people working in the motion-picture
industry do. They may have the autonomy of choosing
their own projects, setting their own hours, and delegating
duties to others as necessary. The work often brings con-
siderable personal satisfaction. But it is not without con-
straints. Producers must work within a stressful schedule
complicated by competing work pressures and often-daily
crises. Each project brings a significant financial and pro-
fessional risk. Long hours and weekend work are common.
Most producers must provide for their own health insur-
ance and other benefits.
OUTLOOK
Employment for producers is expected to grow about as
fast as the average through 2012, according to the U.S.
Department of Labor. Though opportunities may increase
with the expansion of cable and satellite television, news
programs, DVD rentals, and an increased overseas
demand for American-made films, competition for jobs
will be high. Live theater and entertainment will also pro-
vide job openings. Some positions will be available as cur-
rent producers leave the workforce.
TO LEARN
MORE ABOUT
PRODUCERS
BOOKS
Erickson, Gunnar, Mark Halloran, and Harris Tulchin. The
Independent Film Producer’s Survival Guide: A Business
and Legal Sourcebook. New York: Omnibus Press, 2002.
Harmon, Renee. The Beginning Filmmaker’s Business
Guide: Financial, Legal, Marketing, and Distribution
Basics of Making Movies. New York: Walker & Company,
1993.
Houghton, Buck. What a Producer Does: The Art of
Moviemaking (Not the Business). Los Angeles: Silman-
James Press, 1991.
Levy, Frederick. Hollywood 101: The Film Industry. Renais-
sance Books, 2000.
114
To Learn More about Producers • 115
Rensin, David. The Mailroom: Hollywood History from the

Bottom Up. New York: Random House, 2003.
WEBSITES AND ORGANIZATIONS

Visit the Producers Guild of America (PGA) website to
read an online version of Point of View magazine, which
focuses on the role of producers in the motion picture
and television industries.
Producers Guild of America (PGA)
8530 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 450
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
http://www.producersguild.org
The Broadcast Education Association is a good source of

information on scholarships and grants, interest divisions,
and filmmaking publications.
Broadcast Education Association
1771 N Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
http://www.beaweb.org
TO LEARN
MORE ABOUT
DENZEL
WASHINGTON
BOOKS
Brode, Douglas. Denzel Washington: His Films and Career.
New York: Kensington, 1996.
Graham, Judith, Hilary D. Claggett, Elizabeth A. Schick,
Miriam Helbok, eds. Current Biography Yearbook 1992.
Bronx, N.Y.: H. W. Wilson, 1992.
Hill, Anne E. Denzel Washington. Philadelphia: Chelsea
House, 1999.*
Jenkins, Barbara Williams, and Jessie Carney Smith.
“Denzel Washington,” in Notable Black American Men.
Detroit: Gale Group, 1999.
116
To Learn More about Denzel Washington • 117
Kram, Mark. “Denzel Washington,” in Contemporary Black

Biography, Vol. 16. Detroit: Gale Group, 1998.
Nickson, Chris. Denzel Washington. New York: St. Martin’s,
1996.
Parish, James Robert. Today’s Black Hollywood. New York:
Kensington, 1995.
Parish, James Robert, and Allan Taylor, eds. The Encyclo-
pedia of Ethnic Groups in Hollywood. New York: Facts
On File, 2002.
Simmons, Alex. Denzel Washington. Austin, Tex.: Steck-
Vaughn, 1998.*
Wheeler, Jill C. Denzel Washington. Minneapolis: Abdo,
2002.*
Wooten, Sara McIntosh. Denzel Washington: Academy
Award–Winning Actor. Berkeley Heights, N.J: Enslow,
2003.*
* Young adult book
MAGAZINES
Cawley, Janet. “Denzel Washington: Destined for Great-
ness.” Biography, March 2002.
Fleming, Michael, “Denzel Washington.” Playboy, Decem-
ber 2002.
Greenfield, Jeff. “In His Stars.” Reader’s Digest, December
2002.
Smith, Sean M. “Denzel Washington.” Premiere, October

2002.
WEBSITES
E! online
http://www.eonline.com
Internet Movie Database

http://www.imdb.com
Boys and Girls Clubs of America

http://www.bgca.org/
INDEX
Page numbers in italics indicate illustrations.
A B
actors Bassett, Angela 50
career advancement Berry, Halle 1
93–94 Biko, Steve 30–31
career beginning 92–93 The Bishop’s Wife (film) 63
career exploration 91 Black and Hispanic Acting
educational requirements Ensemble 20
88–90 The Bone Collector (film) 2, 65
employers 91–92 Boys Clubs of America 6, 9
employment outlook 97–99 Broderick, Matthew 36
job description of 86–88
other requirements 90–91 C
salaries of 94–96 Caesar, Adolph 23
work environment 96–97 Carbon Copy (film) 23–24
American Conservatory Carter, Rubin “Hurricane”
Theatre (ACT) 17–18 67–69
Amistad (film) 64 Ceremonies in Dark Old Men
Antwone Fisher (film) 3, 75, 76, (play) 20
77 Checkmates (play) 33, 40, 44
Attenborough, Richard 29–30 Coriolanus (play) 20
119
Courage under Fire (film) 5, The George McKenna Story (TV

62–63, 66 film) 27–28
Crimson Tide (film) 58 Georgia (restaurant) 43
Cry Freedom (film) 3, 29–31, 37, Girls Clubs of America 6, 9
44, 61 Glory (film) 3, 5, 35, 35, 36–38,
38, 39, 62
D Grisham, John 53–54
Davis, Miles 40
Devil in a Blue Dress (film) H
60–61, 77–78 Hank Aaron: Chasing a Dream
Do the Right Thing (film) 40 (TV documentary) 43
Hanks, Tom 55, 56, 62
E Hawke, Ethan 71, 72
El-Shabazz, El-Hajj Malik. See He Got Game (film) 3, 64–65
Malcolm X Heart Condition (film) 39
Elder, Lonnie, III 20 Houston, Whitney 63–64
The Emperor Jones (play) 15 The Hurricane (film) 3, 67–68,
68
F
Fallen (film) 64 J
Fisher, Antwone 75 Jackson, Samuel L. 23, 24
Flesh and Blood (TV film) Jewison, Norman 27, 48–49, 68
20 John Q (film) 74, 77
For Queen and Country (film) 4,
31–32 K
Fordham University 13 King of Kings (film) 9
Franklin, Carl 60, 77
Freeman, Al, Jr. 49 L
Freeman, Morgan 5 Lee, Spike 3, 40, 41, 42, 48, 51,
64
G License to Kill (TV film) 27
A Gee-chee Quick Magic Trance Lilies of the Field (film) 1
Manual (play) 19–20 Love Field (film) 44
Index • 121
M Nation of Islam 22, 49–51

Malcolm X 22–23, 48–53 Negro Ensemble Company 19,
Malcolm X (film) 3, 48–50, 50, 23
51–53, 56 Nelson Mandela’s Children’s
Man and Superman (play) 18 Fund 6
Man on Fire (film) 79
The Manchurian Candidate O
(film) (1962) 79 Oakland Academy 12
The Manchurian Candidate One Tiger to a Hill (play) 21
(film) (2004) 79 Othello (play) 15–16, 81
Mandela, Nelson 6, 61 Out of Time (film) 77–79
The Mighty Giants (play) 19
The Mighty Quinn (film) 34–35 P
Miller, Ron 33 Pacino, Al 52
Mississippi Masala (film) 46–47 Pakula, Alan J. 79–80
Mo’ Better Blues (film) 3, 40–41, Papp, Joseph 43
41, 42–44 Pearson, Pauletta. See
Monster’s Ball (film) 1 Washington, Pauletta Pearson
Moonchildren (play) 18 (wife)
Mosley, Walter 60 The Pelican Brief (film) 2, 53,
Much Ado About Nothing (film) 55, 79
53 Pfeiffer, Michelle 44
Muhammad, Elijah 22, 49, 50 Philadelphia (film) 55–56, 56,
Mundy Lane Entertainment 43, 57
60, 75 Platoon (film) 29
Poitier, Sidney 1, 75
N Power (film) 28–29, 58
NAACP (National Association The Preacher’s Wife (film) 63–64
for the Advancement of producers
Colored People) Image Award career advancement 111
38, 47, 53, 59, 63, 65, 71, 73, career beginning
77, 78 110–111
Nair, Mira 47 career exploration 109–110
producers (continued) A Soldier’s Story (film) 27, 30,

educational requirements 34, 48, 68
107–109 Spell #7 (play) 19
employers 110 Stalag 17 (film) 15
employment outlook 113 Stone, Oliver 29
job description 104–107 Superman (film) 66
other requirements 109
salaries of 111–112 T
work environment 112 The Taming of the Shrew (play)
17
R Townsend, Robert 34
Racial injustice, and integration Training Day (film) 1, 6, 71–72,
in the U. S. 7, 10, 18–19, 21, 72, 73, 79
34, 36–40, 46–50, 54, 61, 69–70 Tutu, Desmond (Archbishop)
Remember the Titans (film) 3, 61
70–71
Richard III (play) 44, 45, 53 V
Ricochet (film) 45–46, 57 Virtuosity (film) 59
Roberts, Julia 53
Robeson, Paul 15 W
Ryan, Meg 62 Washington, David (brother) 7
Washington, Denzel
S acting methodology 4–5,
St. Elsewhere (TV series) 24–25, 22, 30–33, 37, 40, 49, 51,
26, 27–28, 34 62–63, 65, 67–68, 81
Segal, George 23 and sports 12–13, 57, 65,
Shabazz, Betty 49–50 68, 70–71
Shakespeare, William 15, 20, as actor 1–5, 14–17, 19–24,
44, 53 26–27, 29–40, 42, 44–46,
She’s Gotta Have It (film) 40 48–49, 51–75, 77–81
The Siege (film) 65 as director 3, 75, 76, 77
A Soldier’s Play (play) 23–24, as musician 12, 40, 41
24, 27, 81 as producer 43, 60, 75
Index • 123
awards and award television work 16–17, 20,

nominations 1–3, 6, 22, 25–28
24, 31, 38, 38–39, 47, theater work 18–21, 23–24,
52–53, 63, 65, 69, 71, 73, 33–34, 43–44, 81
77, 78 time line 82–85
birth and childhood 7–12 Washington, John David (son)
charity work 6, 57 28
divorce of parents 11 Washington, Katia (daughter)
education 12–15, 17–18 28
film work 23, 27–32, 34–36, Washington, Lennis (mother)
39, 44–74 7–8, 10–13, 21
jobs (other than Washington, Lorice (sister) 7
entertainment) 13–14, Washington, Malcolm (son) 28
18, 21 Washington, Olivia (daughter)
marriage and family 5, 7, 9, 28
28, 30, 43, 57, 61, 80, Washington, Pauletta Pearson
80–81 (wife) 5, 17, 20–21, 28, 43,
personal characteristics 57, 61, 80
4–6, 10, 42, 79–80 Washington, Reverend Denzel
personal goals 11–15, 18, (father) 7–8, 11–12, 42
22, 28, 30 West Angeles Church of God in
religion 5–6, 11 Christ 6
romantic relationship When the Chickens Come Home
20–21 to Roost (play) 21–23, 40
talks about himself 2–4, 8, Wilma (TV) 16–17, 20
11, 15, 22, 26–28, 30–31,
36–39, 44, 46, 51, 55–57, Z
59, 62–63, 66, 73, 80–81 Zwick, Edward 5, 35–36, 62, 65
ABOUT THE
AUTHOR
James Robert Parish, a former entertainment reporter,
publicist, and book-series editor, is the author of numer-
ous biographies and reference books of the entertainment
industry including Halle Berry: Actor, Stephen King: Writer,
Tom Hanks: Actor, Steven Spielberg: Filmmaker, Whitney
Houston, The Hollywood Book of Love, Hollywood Divas,
Hollywood Bad Boys, The Encyclopedia of Ethnic Groups in
Hollywood, Jet Li, Jason Biggs, Gus Van Sant, The Hollywood
Book of Death, Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie O’Donnell’s Story,
The Unofficial “Murder, She Wrote” Casebook, Today’s Black
Hollywood, Let’s Talk! America’s Favorite TV Talk Show
Hosts, Black Action Pictures, Liza Minnelli, The Elvis Presley
Scrapbook, and Hollywood’s Great Love Teams.
Mr. Parish is a frequent on-camera interviewee on cable
and network TV for documentaries on the performing
arts both in the United States and in the United Kingdom.
He resides in Studio City, California.

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F E RG U S O N

James Robert Parish

Copyright © 2005 by Facts On File, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Parish, James Robert.

You can find Ferguson on the World Wide Web at http://www.fergpubco.com

Text design by David Strelecky

Pages 86–115 adapted from Ferguson’s Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational

Printed in the United States of America

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

1 A Man with a Purpose 1

3 Paying His Dues 19

6 The Box-Office Winner 60

7 Maintaining the Pace 67

in 1963. Acknowledging this very important accomplish-

filmgoing public as a fine performer, and not one qualified

Nevertheless, he insists, “I think I’m a lot more open about

be powerful and charismatic on the screen.” Another film-

A Religious Family Man

stories and prayer) and

Denzel later recalled growing up in Mount Vernon, he

cinema, the Washington children were limited to viewing

always telling us, ‘You can do anything you want!’ That

In retrospect, Washington also acknowledges that his

with his life. On the other hand, he knew he needed a

to hopefully regain his perspective on life and the value of

and taking drama courses. Among his classes was a the-

Stone was so pleased with his protégé’s creative inter-

Making His TV Debut

“and all I remember feeling was fear.” In fact, the fledgling

productions like Moonchildren and Man and Superman.

Trance Manual, and Lonnie Elder III’s Ceremonies in Dark

Meeting Ms. Right . . . Again

was living together, sharing Denzel’s room at his mother’s

Denzel was to play Malcolm X in this fictional drama

Breaking into the Movies

Critics were impressed with Denzel’s (fourth from left)

young renegade.” The Hollywood trade paper Variety cited

St. Elsewhere to the Rescue

winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow). He was assembling a

well-mannered physician often disappeared for a few

From 1982 to 1988, Denzel was part of the ensemble cast of

give a lot of input into my character, because I didn’t want

George McKenna Story (1986), a TV movie based on the

Building His Resume

with veteran director Sidney Lumet and to interact with a

likeness to Biko, Washington embarked on a special diet to

workload and being fearful of unemployment, he had got-

a goal of every American stage actor—to perform on the

Earning His First Oscar

formance. People maga-

Infantry. This—the first regiment of black soldiers—was

that of The New Yorker, which reported, “Glory isn’t a

movie.” He attributed this feeling not only to the rare lux-

to win the Oscar in the Best Supporting Actor category. On

Enter Spike Lee

Denzel’s work with director Spike Lee (right) in the film

Denzel began his celluloid role as the self-centered

casual attitude toward others extends to his romantic life