Denzel Washington surprises the director of his equation by inventing a personality trait

Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua collaborate for the first time in 2021 “Training day.” Denzel’s casting in the film sparked some controversymainly because it was his first time playing a bad guy and some groups were concerned that he would waste the years of goodwill he had built up by playing morally upright characters in his numerous projects. But his performance as corrupt LAPD narcotics officer Alonzo Harris proved that no matter what role you put him in, Washington can craft a memorable and beguiling character who, for good or bad, will stay with audiences long after the credits roll.

Thirteen years after Fuqua helped Washington prove he could play bad guys like no other, the pair reunited for a very different kind of project. The 2014 film “The Equalizer” saw the veteran star playing someone so committed to the idea of ​​doing what’s right that he was willing to commit acts of mass violence in the pursuit of maintaining cosmic justice. The film saw him play Robert McCall, a former Marine and Defense Intelligence Agency officer who fulfills the classic action movie archetype of the guy who is good at beating up and shooting people but just wants to be left alone. When we first meet McCall, he’s left his fighting days behind him, but he’s forced to show off his elite skills after teenage girl Terry/Alina (Chloë Grace Moretz) is brutalized by members of the Russian mob. It seems that, in order to play this reluctant avenger, Washington created an unexpected character trait, bringing back his performance in “Training Day.”

The “Equalizer” films, of which there are now three, are based on the 1980s CBS television series of the same name. But Antoine Fuqua’s films chart their own course, creating a very different story for Denzel Washington’s Robert McCall. For one thing, Washington’s version of the character suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, which was not only an aspect of the original series, but wasn’t even in the film’s script.

When we first meet McCall in 2014’s “The Equalizer,” he’s a widower living in Boston, living a quiet life and working in a hardware store. Of course, as things unfold, he reveals a completely different side to himself, displaying the kind of fighting skills that could give John Wick a run for his money. While Washington could have handled this typical action figure without putting much thought into it, the man brought his trademark insight to the part, telling the audience BBC“The producer wanted the name and basic premise and that was it. I helped develop the character a little more.”

It appears that one of his biggest contributions to McCall’s character was his obsessive-compulsive aspect, a subject Washington began reading about after signing on to the project. The actor told the BBC: “I’ve developed a backstory for myself that whatever he was doing – and I’m glad we’re not saying – caused some degree of damage or post-traumatic stress. He lost his wife – we lost his wife.” “I don’t quite know why, and it manifests itself in this obsessive-compulsive behavior.” This behavior is most evident in McCall’s use of his watch to time various takedowns of entire groups of goons. But what’s really interesting about the obsessive-compulsive element of McCall’s personality is that Washington never told His director told him all of this until filming began.

during Denzel Washington’s filming of “Training Day” routinely went off script The movie was better for him. Director Antoine Fuqua seems to encourage such improvisation as well, as he actually recruited real gang members to appear in the film and generally wanted things to seem as authentic and spontaneous as possible.

Washington seems to have continued this tradition of adding his own flare to the screenplay with “The Equalizer” as well. Fuqua revealed on Rich Eisen Show That the actor “invented OCD,” adding: “This is something he just started doing. I didn’t even know.” Explaining how he discovered Washington’s addition to Robert McCall’s character, Fuqua said:

“(Denzel) wanted a napkin, he wanted a cup, and we were sitting there in the first (movie) in the coffee shop and he started doing this and I let the camera roll, and I just started picking it up. It just became that way.” Part of that character, so there’s something about Robert McCall that Denzel really responds to and you should ask him about that.”

Fuqua likened this moment to the time Washington added the famous “King Kong” phrase to Alonzo’s final speech during the climax of “Training Day” — another completely improvised moment that caught the director by surprise. Washington continued this tradition on the set of “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” also. It’s still uncertain if he tried that with his character in “Gladiator II,” but it certainly would have rubbed the notorious Ridley Scott the wrong way, so hopefully we’ll hear some stories of Denzel Washington providing some wild improvisations for the director in the future. near.