“I want to play that role”: The terrible movie that made Denzel Washington jealous
The pairing of a serious character and a zany one is the bread and butter of many a movie. Logical and chaotic. Bubbly and stoic. Sociable and introverted. Why yes, I am thinking about two scene-stealing witches right now. On a different note, acting legend Denzel Washington is most certainly known for one of these archetypes.
Denzel Washington, who ironically claims that he no longer watches movies, is a titan of cinema. Known for dramas, the actor has always delivered a truly captivating presence. But it isn’t just drama that he has command of. Washington is doubtlessly a versatile actor, however, and has done his fair share of more lighthearted or comedic movies. But the gravitas is certainly what filmmakers come to him for, no matter the movie’s genre.
Director Brett Leonard spoke about how the actor’s specific role to play in his 1995 sci-fi thriller Virtuosity. At the time, Leonard had just made a name for himself with the 1992 horror hit The Lawnmower Man. Contrastingly, Virtuosity had an underwhelming reception, though it went on to become something of a cult classic. The picture follows an imprisoned ex-cop (Washington) who is offered a chance at freedom when experimental virtual reality technology allows an AI killer (a then-unknown Russell Crowe) to escape.
“Russell was not known at the time at that level of the studio system,” says Leonard in an interview with Movie Jawn. “He had done The Quick and the Dead, which is a supporting role, but he had never had a lead like this in an American film. Deborah Aquila, who was my casting director, really believed in Russell as well. We really petitioned [then-Chairman of Paramount Pictures] Sherry Lansing. So we did a screen test. And Denzel came away just totally supporting me in my casting of Russell.”
It’s a rather inspiring story that these established creatives all saw Crowe’s potential — and they were definitely all right. For the director, he really wanted to make Crowe happen because of his particular suitability for the role in mind. “But Russell was sleeping on my couch at the time when he came over from Australia to do that screen test,” continues Leonard. “I’d seen him in Romper Stomper, an amazing film that no one here had really seen. He’s playing a skinhead biker [but] you still love him. And I said, that’s what I want in my villain. I want something that’s dangerous and yet has this inherent masculinity that would translate.”
This was where Washington would start to get jealous, as Crowe, like so many actors before and after him, had just a fantastic time playing the villain. “We just had a wonderful time. Some of the things he did in that role were really leaping off the cliff, and it works,” says Leonard. “Denzel was jealous of Russell’s role; he kept going, ‘I want to play that role. This role is too serious. Russell’s having more fun than me.’ But of course Denzel holds down the movie in a way that very few actors can.”
Both actors were in the role they needed to be to bring the movie together, with their characters’ opposing personalities allowing dynamism on-screen, like so many other iconic duos, be they friends or foes. Ironically, Virtuosity is not, by the numbers, a good movie — it sits at 31% on Rotten Tomatoes, at least. But this one-off, underwhelming contribution to pop culture may still have inspired Washington in terms of roles he might want to pursue in the future.
