The Denzel Washington movie that made Tony Scott jealous: “I was like a jilted lover”
It’s been over a dozen years since Tony Scott passed away, but Denzel Washington still hasn’t worked with a single director more often, which speaks to how close the pair became personally and professionally.
Not to suggest that the two-time Academy Award-winning icon has deliberately made a point of refusing to eclipse his five-time partnership with the influential action auteur, especially when he’s already matched the record and stands a very good chance of exceeding it in the not-too-distant future.
Washington starred in four Spike Lee films between 1990’s Mo Better Blues and 2006’s Inside Man, but he’ll join Scott in the five-timers club when their remake of Akira Kurosawa’s towering crime thriller High and Low hits cinemas, with principal photography concluding in the summer of 2024.
Thanks to The Equalizer trilogy, the remake of classic western The Magnificent Seven, and his second Oscar-winning performance in Training Day, Antoine Fuqua is the third member of the illustrious crew who’ve directed Washington on five occasions, and they’ll be stealing Vin Diesel’s thunder to set a new benchmark after agreeing to join forces once again on the story of historical general Hannibal.
What was curious about the Washington/Scott dynamic is that there was a decade and a half between their first and second features before the actor headlined four of the director’s final five films. Crimson Tide was a pivotal moment in the star’s career, establishing him as somebody who was more than capable of leading the line in an action-packed blockbuster.
Man of Fire, Deja Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Unstoppable were all released within six years of each other, ensuring that Scott dedicated the majority of his career’s last years to doing something audiences have repeatedly shown they can’t resist; placing Washington against insurmountable odds in a high-stakes thriller.
He was basically part of the family, not that Tony was entirely thrilled when his older brother Ridley decided he wanted a piece of the action, recruiting Washington to play notorious crime boss and drug smuggler Frank Lucas in his biographical epic, American Gangster.
“I got jealous,” Scott admitted to Movies of discovering his own flesh and blood was stealing away his favoured star. “I was like a jilted lover.” There’s a high chance he’s joking, but then again, maybe he’s not. After all, not only did Ridley steal Washington away from Tony between Deja Vu and The Taking of Pelham 123, but American Gangster ended up as the highest-grossing movie the actor has ever appeared in, a record that still stands today.
Fortunately, he wasn’t one to hold a grudge, even if took Washington a long time to work with one of the Scott siblings again, ending an exile that spanned 14 years when he agreed to star in Ridley’s long-awaited sequel Gladiator II.
