The “weird, kinky” movie Denzel Washington would have loved to be a part of
He’s an enduringly popular star, a sex symbol well into his 60s, and one of the greatest actors to ever grace the silver screen, but Denzel Washington hasn’t exactly played many characters who could be called lascivious, salacious, or even erotically charged.
The two-time Academy Award winner has been part of an on-screen romance plenty of times, and he’s been involved in his fair share of love scenes, too, but Washington has never leapt over that final barrier to take part in a wanton act of cinematic titillation.
There’s a certain amount of steaminess to be found in many of his movies, and he’s never had any issues generating sparks with his co-stars or smouldering as a romantic lead. On the other side of the coin, his filmography has been lacking in unabashed weirdness and outlandish psychosexuality, even though he’s openly shared his admiration for a film that’s almost the epitome of both.
David Lynch’s Blue Velvet throws many genres into its melting pot, but what emerged on the other side was an entirely unique concoction of noir, mystery, thriller, violence, and sensuality, with the latter two points proving so contentious that several major studios passed on the chance to back the project because it was too risqué for their mainstream reputations.
History always remembers the victors, though, with Blue Velvet being remembered as one of Lynch’s best works that earned him an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Director’, even if the consensus was initially split on the story following Kyle MacLachlan’s college student becoming drawn into an increasingly dark, depraved, and twisted world where Dennis Hopper’s Frank Booth looms large.
The ensemble cast—ranging from MacLachlan and Hopper to Laura Dern, Isabella Rossellini, Dean Stockwell, and Brad Dourif—is all uniformly excellent in their roles, but Washington admitted that he would have loved to play in Lynch’s uninhibited sandbox if the opportunity had come his way.
“I like the film Blue Velvet,” he said to Interview. “I would have wanted to play some of the parts in that. Something about that film got to me on some weird, kinky level.” He’s not the only one, with the initially polarising reception to Lynch’s latest maverick masterwork giving way to enduring cult status, even if it’s not the type of film anyone would typically associate with Washington.
Despite his self-professed admiration for Blue Velvet, nobody came banging on the star’s door asking him to get weird in a spiritual successor that traded in the same themes of darkness, light, duality, and desire in the years to come.
Which is a shame, if only because the last 40 years have underlined repeatedly there’s nothing Washington can’t do. If Lynch ever gets around to helming another feature, then maybe he should give him a call.
