The director who can’t stand the role Denzel Washington is proudest of: “Such a phony, false performance”
Denzel Washington would appear on any list of the greatest Hollywood stars of all time. Few actors can draw an audience based solely on their presence. But while his talent is undeniable, Washington’s distinct acting style isn’t always the most helpful model for emerging actors still figuring out their own approach.
There are many names that will always be associated with a single, famous performance, but selecting the best work of Washington’s career is far more challenging when considering the plethora of classics that he has appeared in, and opinions differ widely.
He may have two Oscars for his supporting role in Glory and his lead performance in Training Day, but his frequent collaborator Spike Lee felt that he deserved it most for playing the titular part in the acclaimed biopic Malcolm X, and of all of his roles, his personal greatest achievement isn’t what some of his fans might expect.
The man claimed to be particularly proud of The Hurricane, a film in which he played the real boxer Rubin Carter, who was falsely accused of murder and detained in prison for many years, and whose plight ignited many protests during the Civil Rights Movement and even inspired the beloved Bob Dylan song ‘Hurricane’.
The Hurricane may have earned Washington an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Actor’, but it isn’t always cited as one of his best; nonetheless, it’s an important film that has a clear-eyed perspective on a figure who should not be forgotten, and allowed the actor to get in some of the best shape of his life in order to nail the boxing scenes.
While it was met with praise, it featured the type of performance that only Washington could have pulled off, such that if younger actors attempt to capture his eloquent, impassioned manner of speaking, it could be perceived to be very corny. This is something that director David Gordon Green felt when making his independent drama George Washington, in which he wanted his young actors to avoid Washington’s performance style.
”I took advantage of the fact that the kids didn’t know the textbook ways of acting to show them what I thought acting is, which is just a hair beyond the ‘let’s pretend’ school of acting,” Green said, “I tried to get them to understand how I feel when I see Denzel Washington in The Hurricane, which I find such a phony, false performance in which I see him overdramatise every line he says.”
George Washington was the first of many low-budget character dramas that Green made, which told the story of a young boy, played by Damian Jewan Lee, who comes to grips with a shocking incident as he grows up and learns about heroes. Lee’s performance is brilliant because it feels entirely naturalistic, which is something the director continued to draw out of his actors in subsequent works like All The Real Girls and Undertow.
While Green’s remarks on how he directs child actors make sense, his backhanded comments on Washington’s performance are unusual, especially considering the many worse examples of ‘Oscar bait’ acting out there. Although Green was praised for the wholesome style of his earlier films, the sharp downward spiral in his career with films like Halloween Ends and The Exorcist: Believer suggests that he is in no place to criticise Washington at least.
