Phillip Noyce explains the details of Denzel Washington’s brilliance
In the same way that a carpenter can’t do their job with a blunt saw, movie directors are screwed if they’re not provided with good actors. There’s a reason why many directors work with the same stars over and over again: once you’ve found someone you collaborate well with, you don’t want to let them go.
One of the most useful skills an actor can possess is versatility. If a director can cast someone in any role and not worry about whether or not they can do it, they’ll be on cloud nine. According to one acclaimed filmmaker, the one and only Denzel Washington is a joy to work with for that exact reason.
Phillip Noyce, the Australian director behind Patriot Games, Salt, and Rabbit-Proof Fence, spoke to Venice Magazine in 1999 about why he thought Washington was so good. “Denzel combines the best of two distinguished traditions: the English and American traditions of acting,” he said, defining “American” acting as “method” where the actor “immerses him or herself into the character totally”. He didn’t give his definition of “English” acting, but one can assume that it’s the opposite of method.
The interview was to promote the movie The Bone Collector, in which Washington plays a character who is paralysed from the neck down. “Obviously, he could never truly realise the pain that a real quadriplegic goes through,” Noyce said of his star. “So he immersed himself in the technical aspects of being a quadriplegic.” His character, NYPD forensics expert Lincoln Rhyme, is mostly bedridden during the movie as the result of an accident that occurs in the opening scene.
Discussion surrounding how minority groups, including disabled people, are presented on screen has gotten louder and louder since the release of The Bone Collector. Even at the time, though, Noyce was worried about misrepresentation. He said: “If it [the movie] was seen to be belittling the experience of being a quadriplegic, the audience would reject it, and it would fail miserably.” He then explained that this was tied to his decision to give the role to Washington: “By casting Denzel, I felt that I had a man of great dignity, of great prowess as an actor, of great humanity, and someone who would never belittle the predicament of his character.”
The film, which also starred Angelia Jolie, was a modest success at the box office but was not a critical hit. It spawned a TV adaptation many years later, Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector, and Noyce was asked to direct the first episode. However, he said no. “I spoke to the makers, and I said, ‘Okay, I’ll make the pilot, but this is what I’d be looking to do,’” he told Syfy. “They made their pilot, but they made the most basic mistakes in their casting.”
Jolie’s role, Amelia Sachs, was played by Arielle Kebbel. As for Rhyme, that part was given to Russell Hornsby, who had previously played Washington’s character’s son in the movie Fences. Clearly, Noyce didn’t think that this fictional family tie was good enough.
