Antoine Fuqua considered de-ageing Denzel Washington for ‘The Equalizer’ origin story
Actor Denzel Washington may well be put through an artificial intelligence CGI de-ageing process in an origins story of The Equalizer films, directed by Antoine Fuqua, who also previously worked with Washington on the movie Training Day.
De-ageing actors in films using AI has become quite common these days, with Harrison Ford going through the process for a scene in the recent Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which The Irishman by Martin Scorsese also saw the likes of Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino all de-aged.
During an interview with the NME, Fuqua explained how he considered using de-aging on Washington. “I definitely thought about it a lot,” he said. “Especially now with the new technology and the AI and all of that kind of stuff…”
The director continued: “Is there a story to be told about how [McCall] became this person – the younger version? I’ve had that conversation with Richard Wenk [The Equalizer films’ writer] quite a bit.”
As of yet, the feelings of Washington on being de-aged have not been confirmed. “I haven’t talked to Denzel about that yet,” said Fuqua before going to explain how he had been inspired by the recent de-ageing efforts in other films.
“It’s all so fresh and new,” he said. “I’m still watching [the technology]. I’ve watched Harrison Ford’s film, and I know there are other movies coming out. Sony has one coming out with Tom Hanks soon.”
The director signed off his thoughts on the CGI process with, “And I’m hearing the technology is getting better and better and better. So I’m kind of watching it to see where it goes.”
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