The YouTube videos that steered Denzel Washington to an Oscar nomination: “You’ll see all kinds”
It’s easy to imagine that Denzel Washington came out of the womb knowing how to act. The two-time Oscar winner has given some of the greatest movie performances of all time and is easily one of his generation’s most outstanding talents. He is just as gifted in front of a live audience, too, as he’s starred in a number of high-profile stage shows. In 2010, he won ‘Best Leading Actor in a Play’ for his role in Fences. He would be nominated for an Academy Award eight years later for playing the same character on-screen.
As much as we’d like to believe Washington was born with a script in his hand, he had to work hard just like the rest of us. He trained at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, a non-profit organisation that counts Elizabeth Banks, Danny Glover, and Zendaya among its alumni. As well as taking inspiration from a book by James Cagney, he’s also turned to a slightly less formal source for help – YouTube.
In 2012, Washington appeared in the Robert Zemeckis drama Flight. His role was William ‘Whip’ Whittaker, an airline pilot who saves a plane full of people by pulling off a miraculous landing. However, once the investigation into the crash opens, Whittaker’s turbulent personal life becomes very public. The defining trait of the character is his alcoholism. As the star had previously sworn off drinking while on set, he needed another way to portray a drunk man convincingly. So, he did what we would all do in the same situation – he turned to several YouTube compilations of people under the influence.
“You’ll see all kinds,” he told The Hollywood Reporter while promoting the film. “One poor guy – I don’t know if he was on alcohol or a stronger drug – all he’s trying to do is put his slipper on for about five minutes. It taught me as much as I could have learned from anybody because when you watch someone in the middle of it, you are watching his behavior.”
While you might have thought that Washington’s preparation would have included speaking to actual alcoholics, the star decided this wasn’t the way to go. “I wasn’t playing an alcoholic. I’m playing a guy who drank,” he said. “People call him an alcoholic; he’s in denial.” He instead received information from ordinary people that knew and spoke to, revealing, “You don’t realize how many people have had problems.”
Despite taking a less-involved approach to researching the role, Washington’s turn as Whittaker garnered near-universal praise from everyone who saw it. As well as his fourth of seven career ‘Best Actor’ nominations at the Oscars, the part also landed him a Golden Globe nod, as well as victory at the Black Reel and NAACP Image Awards. Flight also appeared in a number of publications’ year-end ‘Best of’ lists, mostly due to its astonishing lead performance.
Whilst it would have been so easy for Washington to take a more ‘method’ approach to playing a heavy drinker, that’s not how he gets the most out of his characters. By keeping an arm’s length and thinking about the issue of alcoholism in a different way, he was able to produce one of the best performances of the year without touching a single drop of booze.
