“He just didn’t let us go”: the movie Denzel Washington wasn’t allowed to watch and how it shaped him anyway
Most of us can relate to a parental figure banning us from watching a movie that we want to see, even if we’re convinced that we’re old enough. When you’re young, though, you sometimes just don’t want to acknowledge that your parents probably have the right idea about you not seeing a certain film; they often do know best.
That doesn’t always stop us, however. We’ve all snuck behind our parents’ backs to watch something we shouldn’t, coveting a DVD or VHS tape with an age rating on it several years beyond us, probably watching it at a sleepover. Acting all high and mighty around your friends that of course the film didn’t scare you, with your parents then having to deal with you not wanting to go to sleep without the landing light on for a good few weeks.
It’s part of being a kid, though, and I’d argue you should be going out of your way to watch things you probably shouldn’t at least once when you’re young, because it really can be the making of you. I mean, I was definitely too young to be watching Skins when I was 12, but then most people probably watched the show when they were too young; it’s just a rite of passage.
Denzel Washington can attest to watching something when he was far too young, but being greatly impacted by it. The actor, who has won two Academy Awards and appeared in countless blockbusters, might have a predisposition to appearing in some dark films that fall into the action and crime genres, but he was actually brought up in a pretty sheltered, religious household.
As a result, his father, an ordained Pentecostal minister, was very particular about what his son watched, and he didn’t want any corrupting influence to take hold of him. Washington admitted to Interview that his father didn’t like him watching movies, and when asked why, he replied, “The Ten Commandments: ‘Honour thee no God before me’”.
The actor continued, “He just didn’t let us go. I don’t know what he thought. It was athletics for me. I played everything: football, basketball, baseball. I was a walk-on in basketball and football in college. I went in and tried out for the teams without a scholarship, and I made it both times.”
But there was still one movie that he caught without his father’s permission that left a mark on him: Superfly. The blaxploitation movie was released in 1972, making Washington 18, which is certainly quite old to be ‘watching something he shouldn’t’, but clearly, the actor had been quite sheltered by his father until this point. “My father was around and didn’t let us get much farther into watching films,” he said.
Superfly had an unforgettable Curtis Mayfield soundtrack, with Ron O’Neal starring as a drug dealer trying to leave the business, even though he makes a fortune from it. The movie was a hit, even receiving a remake in 2018, and it clearly lit a fuse in Washington’s mind. Here was a film which put Black characters at the forefront, although several civil rights campaigners were displeased with its portrayal of Black culture as one defined by drugs and violence.
It’s not surprising, then, that Washington’s father didn’t want his son to watch it, but he did, and he subsequently came to appear in many crime movies himself.
