The only movies Denzel Washington regrets turning down: “I was wrong”
The problem with acting is, if you turn down a role in a movie that inevitably becomes incredibly successful, you have to be faced with the mistake of your decision forevermore. Imagine you reject a film that becomes award season’s hottest contender, showered with praise in every direction and heralded as a masterpiece – that’s got to hurt.
Many actors have spoken out about their regrets over turning down certain roles that, once they saw the films, they realised they should’ve accepted. That’s just part and parcel of the job, and an actor will never really know if a role was right for them until they do it – or someone else does.
For Denzel Washington, who has been nominated for nine Oscars and won two (firstly for 1989’s Glory and then for 2001’s Training Day), having such a successful career doesn’t mean that he’s not got a few regrets. There are always going to be some, and for Washington, it’s “Seven and Michael Clayton,” he told GQ.
Seven, released in 1995, was directed by heavyweight filmmaker David Fincher and remains one of the best movies of the 1990s. With Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as two detectives tracking down a cryptic killer inspired by the seven deadly sins, the film is full of twists, and it’s clearly one that Washington wishes he was a part of.
He was offered the role of Pitt’s David Mills, as was Sylvester Stallone, but Washington ultimately turned it down and starred in three other movies that year instead – the acclaimed Crimson Tide and Devil in a Blue Dress, and then the widely panned Virtuosity. Washington revealed his reasons for turning down Seven in 2014, telling Jamie Foxx, “I thought the script was too demonic. I was like, man, it’s just too much.” Yet, he soon realised the error of his ways, adding, “I blew it.”
Surprisingly, Seven only picked up one Oscar nomination for ‘Best Film Editing’, despite its incredible direction and performances. Still, it remains a classic, with many considering it one of the best thrillers of all time.
Then there’s Michael Clayton, the 2007 film by Tony Gilroy, which saw George Clooney play the titular role. For Washington, the decision to turn down the film was one that he soon regretted when he considered how silly his reason for rejecting it was. “With Clayton, it was the best material I had read in a long time, but I was nervous about a first-time director, and I was wrong,” he told GQ. “It happens.”
The movie follows a lawyer as he is torn between legality and getting out of a tricky situation when he is called to fix the mess caused by one of his law firm’s litigators, who has had a mental breakdown. Clooney was nominated for an Oscar for his performance, and we’re sure Washington could’ve been too if he’d accepted the part.
However, it’s natural to have doubts about a first-time director – even if Gilroy had written three of the successful Bourne movies prior to becoming a director. Still, Washington seems to have learned his lesson, and it appears that he has no more regrets about turning down movies.
