Denzel Quotes

Denzel Washington has a great sense of humor. He did all those 'Nutty Professor' movies.

Well, we studied a lot of books and things like that. Denzel has a personal experience with it, not himself, that's his business-I won't get into that, but he knows a lot about it as well. So, we took some real life experiences that we both-I've been told that I have OCD.

I'm usually the guy who says, 'Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington in the Siege'!

A part of me still says, 'Maybe, Denzel, you're supposed to preach. Maybe you're still compromising.' I've had an opportunity to play great men and, through their words, to preach. I take what talent I've been given seriously, and I want to use it for good.

Anyway, I'm doing my rave and this spittle comes out of my mouth and it winds its way very delicately through the wire fence that separates us and lands clear and bright on Denzel's lip. And we're at the beginning of the scene and I've got to do the rest of the scene, and the camera isn't on him, it's on me - and I'm fully aware that I've just spat on Denzel Washington!

I feel like I'll be defined more so by ... when I get a chance to play roles where I'm the father/husband. I'd like to continue with the action stuff, but when I get to play the father/husband role, I think that will be the time where I'm playing who I really am. I look forward to playing those kind of heroic characters, the types that are usually associated with Denzel Washington.

We're very good friends, we have a very honest relationship. He keeps me honest, I keep him honest. He's an incredible actor and when you have an actor like Denzel action becomes drama.

I really want my acting to be definitive a lot of times, but I must feel like in any given moment there is a lot of things going on with Rose. I kept telling Denzel [Washington] throughout filming [Fences] that the house is her joy and her tomb.

It was fantastic to be on the set again with Denzel (Washington) and Antoine (Fuqua) and then to have the situation be so different. We weren't making a sequel to Training Day. We were in the middle of the desert riding around on some horses.

Virginia Mayo had kind of a small role in The Best Years of Our Lives, but you got the whole character in one scene. Where are those parts? I was talking to somebody about great actors: Morgan Freeman's name came up, Forest Whitaker, Denzel Washington. And I realized, there're no black actresses. Where's there a black actress who's been extremely successful in the past 10 years?

Denzel Washington was so great at The Great Debaters, so focused and talented. That was just an honor to be cast in that, for the most part. I was fat, and I guess the casting director sold him on me. He actually said to me during the scene, "You know, I've always found that less is more," which is an expression that you've heard a million times, but it was a nice way of telling me I was overdoing it.

In many ways for black actors there's been two leading guys: It's Will Smith vs. Denzel [Washington].

When Denzel [Washington] first called me on the phone after we'd just done a reading of the film ["Fences"]. He said, "Oh Viola it was so good, wasn't it?! I'm gonna tell Russell [Hornsby] to lose a little bit of weight and..." I was just sitting there thinking, why is he calling me? And I told him, "Denzel don't you tell me to lose weight!" He said, "I'm not telling you to lose weight! I can't believe you would say that."

Denzel [Washington] just knows the actor. He knows the process, and you don't often get that.

When most actors finally get to L.A., I think they expect to be the next Will Smith or Denzel Washington and that's not the case.

My favorite newer movie is "Training Day." Denzel Washington is, to me, one of the greatest actors ever. The way he gets into those roles is ridiculous.

Denzel Washington is someone I look up to.

An ideal movie would be, like - to get this to happen, I have to work so much harder - but imagine Denzel Washington, Laurence Fishburne, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy... Who else? Donald Faison. Directed by Steven Spielberg. That would be awesome.

Denzel's quality, I think, is his faith. You have all the action in your head and you have to believe in it and just do it. That's what he does and that's what he taught me to do.

I was very disappointed that Denzel didn't win Best Actor for The Hurricane because I thought he deserved it.

A lot of people... kind of make heroes that are separate from us, people who are, you know, like... John Wayne and Errol Flynn and, you know, Denzel Washington... people who are different, who are larger than life.

Watch me when people say deaf and dumb, or deaf mute, and I give them a look like you might get if you called Denzel Washington the wrong name.

The violence you witness is Denzel doing it and we're taking some visual effects and doing some things and you see something happen it's happening in front of you as opposed to cutting away and doing a bunch of tricks. It's in front of you. So it's hard not to make it a hard "R" if you see a guy get punched and teeth wind up in someone's knuckles.

Denzel Washington's career is an enormous luxury. Compare him to Wesley Snipes.

Denzel Washington: I like the collaboration, I like seeing people do well, so I really plan to direct the rest of my days.

Mix one part Denzel Washington and two parts Eva Mendes and you have a nice hot cocktail.

I worked with the same trainer that worked with Denzel Washington in THe Hurricane. It was three months of training, five days a week, 4 to 5 hours a day. This was followed by a month of choreography.

Denzel has been that leading man, but it took him a while to get to Training Day and Hurricane Carter.

I wanna chase down Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Will Smith. I would love to start my film career.

[Denzel Washington] was rustling with something and when he came back it was with a word about loving myself and the body that I'm in because I was still going on and on about the weight thing. I just liked that, because what people don't understand is that so much of what blocks us as actors is so personal.

Obviously, ["Fences"] is a character-driven piece in every sense of the word, and Denzel [Washington] knows the actor. He gave us two weeks of rehearsal. He is a truth teller, and he is a truth seer. So he knows when something is not going in the right direction, and he will call you on it. But, he knows the word to use to unlock whatever is blocking you. So I think he's fabulous and he's a teacher.

There's all kinds of depictions of black men. You have the Denzel Washingtons and the Will Smiths; that's wonderful, but that doesn't represent everyone. There's a Russell Crowe... well, you know, there's a black Russell Crowe.

The movie, 'Remember the Titans,' is my favorite movie, staring Denzel Washington. I love the way in this movie the game of football brings those boys together, it unites those boys on that football field. It unites a whole town, black, white, old, young, rich and poor.

I like "Training Day" very much. Denzel Washington's performance was spectacular. I also like "The Godfather"and "Kill Bill." I love Tarantino's mind and I believe that "Kill Bill" describes very well his mind and thoughts.

Denzel Washington is a person I will always emulate. I emulate him because he focuses on real life. Because of that he has made me a better person.

Denzel Washington invoked confidence. When you have confidence, you can do anything. And that's what happened. I learned about being honest and keeping it true, keeping it true in my performance.

I was discovered on the Sony lot through an audition by Denzel Washington.

I'm not a big fan of the post-Armageddon stories, where Denzel Washington is walking around in a torn coat.

If I could get any semblance of, not really anonymity, but control over my public image, that would be nice. But no, I think it's impossible [to maintain that], for one thing. I don't think anyone can do that, apart from Denzel Washington. It's a strange place that the film industry is at, where you can just play superhero after superhero.

You know, we don't look much alike, but Denzel Washington would make a great sports agent.

I cannot absorb living in a world where I have an Oscar for best actress and Denzel doesn't have one for best actor.

I want to aspire to something like what Denzel Washington does, which is try to find scripts written for white actors - or Jodie Foster, who reads scripts for male actors.

When I hear people comparing Mike's [Jordan] work to Denzel [Washington] I think it's amazing.. Because Denzel is such an amazing, textured actor. And I think that that comes with Mike too. I'm not thinking about how they look, though; I'm thinking about what they're able to accomplish.