The character type Denzel Washington always wanted to try: “Nobody will give me a job”
Not to reduce one of the greatest actors in cinema history to a performer who only has a pair of strings to their bow, but more often than not, Denzel Washington can be found working in two particular arenas above all others.
There’s the ass-kicking action hero of The Equalizer trilogy, Ricochet, The Book of Eli, 2 Guns, Man on Fire, and many more, with the two-time Academy Award winner proving his credentials as one of the most reliably bankable stars in the business. Whenever there’s a movie that features Washington carrying a gun or dropping bodies, then audiences are virtually guaranteed to turn up.
On the other hand, there’s the respected thespian and dramatic powerhouse of Cry Freedom, Malcolm X, Flight, Fences, and countless others, with the long-time A-lister equally comfortable mining the emotional depths as he is reducing disposable henchmen and scenery-chewing villains to a bloody pulp.
Obviously, that’s a sweeping generalisation, but there’s been one glaring omission in Washington’s recent filmography that he’d love to rectify if anyone was willing to give him a chance. It’s not outright villainy, either, even if those characters have also been fairly few and far between.
Maybe it’s because he’s so popular, but very rarely does Washington break bad and play anyone truly reprehensible. Even his trips to the dark side in Training Day, American Gangster, and Safe House leaned heavily on his natural charisma and screen presence, but at least he’s getting those offers. As it applies to broad comedy, though, his inbox remains empty.
When IGN asked why he hadn’t starred in a crowd-pleasing side-splitter, the actor gave an answer that was as straightforward as it was unexpected. “Because nobody will give me a job,” he said. “Nobody ever asks me to be the funny guy. I’ve always been the funny guy, I thought. But nobody asks me to be.”
Perhaps the horrors of 1990’s Heart Condition remain burned into the brains of studio executives everywhere, with the odd-couple caper that partnered him with Bob Hoskins as a racist cop who ends up getting a transplant from the body of Washington’s deceased lawyer and subsequently becomes haunted by the ghost of his arch-nemesis in with a very strong shout at being named the worst movie of his career.
There have been lashings of comedy to many of his star vehicles over the years, but pratfalling buffoonery has never been a part of it. He wants to be funny, people believe he’s funny, but for whatever reason nobody wants to offer him one. It’s a strange situation, especially for someone of Washington’s standing who can pick or choose their projects at will, but maybe one day he’ll get the chance to mug for the cameras and play for the cheap seats.
