And he carefully follows the news, watching the evening broadcasts as well as CNN, perusing The New York Times daily (“That’s where most of my news comes from”) and even dipping into The New York Post, “if I really want to feel sleazy.” (He was even asked to play basketball with President Obama, but “my knees are shot,” he notes.) His eldest son, John David, plays for the Sacramento Mountain Lions, a team in the United Football League.īeside that, while he says “I don’t like to self-analyze,” he keeps a journal - “sometimes, not all the time” - but won’t reveal its contents. He likes a good game of chess - which fits this man who always seems two to three moves ahead of you - and also is an avid sports fan. He doesn’t own a boat and prefers to rent but says the ocean gives him a sense of peace, quipping, “because it’s far from land.” and also attended by prominent African Americans including Magic Johnson), to which he donated $2.5 million in 1995.Īlthough he doesn’t read much, he studies the Bible daily and says he has just been pondering Psalm 56, with its plea: “Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up the fighting daily oppresseth me.” Some of his money has gone to aid the causes he believes in - including the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, on whose board he serves, after it supported the young Denzel during a troubled adolescence and the Pentecostal West Angeles Church of God in Christ (located in south L.A. Not even peers Tom Cruise and Will Smith have shown such range and consistency at the box office. He remains unique among stars in his proven ability to open films, whether action or drama. It has helped win him two Oscars - for 1989’s Glory and 2001’s Training Day - and made him rich he earned $20 million for his February release Safe House. Now 57, wearing casual black pants and a billowing shirt, he is handsome but no longer the chiseled Adonis who stole audiences’ hearts when he first came to fame in 1982 with NBC’s St. You don’t know what’s inside a man’s head.”īut his carefully cultivated veil of protection has served him well, allowing him to remain at the top of Hollywood longer than any of his contemporaries - and headed in the direction of one of his heroes, Clint Eastwood. If you had given me a list of 25 people, I don’t think I’d have picked him. He does say, though: “I was shocked by his death. 19, he says, “We didn’t have a beer every other week.” Washington did not attend Scott’s funeral, which was a private affair involving only family and the closest of friends. Why, you never learn.Īsked whether he was close to the late director Tony Scott, who directed him in five movies from 1995’s Crimson Tide to 2010’s Unstoppable and who committed suicide Aug. “I have my own beliefs, and I keep them to myself,” is as far as he goes.īoth exceptionally intelligent and exceptionally elusive, he doesn’t hang out with Hollywood hotshots, seems barely familiar with the name of a leading executive and claims most of his friends in entertainment are ones this reporter “wouldn’t know.” Intimacy is reserved for a chosen few. (Records show he donated $2,300 back then to the Obama campaign.) He also won’t say whether he favors gay marriage, which would seem to clash with his much-publicized religious views. He’s as guarded about his politics as his private life, only saying that he’ll vote for the same man he supported in 2008. Try to probe too deep, and he deflects you like a skilled pugilist - unsurprising for a man who boxes almost daily. Ask whether anything scares him, and he turns the question on this reporter then cautions, “We attract what we fear.”
His response shows just how hard it is to fathom this superstar, even though he calls himself “a simple man.” Lob a question at him, and he’ll lob it right back. He crosses the room to pour a coffee, moving with the mixture of charm and danger that makes you unsure whether the real Washington is the man in Remember the Titans or Training Day, relaxed and untroubled by the issue, seemingly like everything else. “I semi-quit,” he laughs, brushing it off as he rises from the couch where he’s been sitting this late-October afternoon, in a suite at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills. Ray Romano's 'Somewhere in Queens' Lands at Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions
0 kommentar(er)
