Denzel Washington Says He Does not Think about Himself a ‘Hollywood Actor’

Denzel Washington prefers to consider himself as a theater actor earlier than a movie star.

Throughout an interview on CBS Information’ Sunday Morning on March 23, the actor, 70, spoke about his function alongside Jake Gyllenhaal within the new Broadway manufacturing of Shakespeare’s Othello — and mirrored on why he considers himself a theater performer earlier than all else.

“What is the definition of a Hollywood actor? Myself, I am from Mt. Vernon, so I am a ‘Mt. Vernon actor,’ ” Washington mentioned, referring to his hometown in New York. “I do not know what ‘Hollywood’ means.”

“Anyone who’s well-known on movie? A movie actor, nice success on movie?” continued Washington, who has received Oscars for his work in films together with 1989’s Glory and 2001’s Coaching Day.

“I am a stage actor who does movie; it is not the opposite method round,” Washington defined. “I did stage first. I discovered learn how to act on stage, not on movie. Motion pictures are a filmmaker’s medium. You shoot it, and you then’re gone, they usually lower collectively and add music and do all of that. Theater is an actor’s medium. The curtain goes up, no person may help you.”

The brand new manufacturing of Othello — which celebrated its opening night time on March 23 — options Washington within the title function and Gyllenhaal, 44, because the villainous Iago. That is the primary time Othello has been on Broadway in additional than 40 years. The final revival, in 1982, starred James Earl Jones as Othello, Christopher Plummer as Iago and Dianne Wiest as Desdemona.

Elsewhere in his dialog with Sunday Morning, Washington spoke about how the Broadway manufacturing is a dream for him — and the way he hopes he can fill the footwear of the late Jones, one among his heroes.

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“James Earl Jones was my northern star once I was in faculty,” he mentioned. “He was who I wished to be. I did not get to see his Othello, however I do know it wasn’t nearly as good as my 22-year-old interpretation. However you realize, it is my flip.”

“I do know rather a lot much less now,” Washington continued, reflecting on his 22-year-old self’s interpretation of the titular navy officer function. “I believed I knew all the things then. I did not actually just like the half, ‘trigger I wasn’t smart sufficient to know it. Now I perceive it is actually a few bond, you realize, that these characters have. He loves not correctly, however too properly.”

Working with Gyllenhaal and attending to placed on a Shakespeare manufacturing of this scale, he added, is “essentially the most excited I have been this century.”

“Significantly,” he mentioned. “I have never been this enthusiastic about something I’ve carried out as I’m about this.”

Tony Award-winning director Kenny Leon helms the manufacturing, which is ready to run for a strictly restricted 15-week engagement. Lead producer Brian Anthony Moreland spearheaded the manufacturing to the stage, alongside a sequence of co-producers together with Actual Housewives of Atlanta alum Kandi Burrus and her husband Todd Tucker.

Othello is enjoying at Broadway’s Barrymore Theatre, now via Sunday, June 8.