The role Denzel Washington only played because his son told him to: “You gotta do that one”
(Credits: A24)
Tue 18 November 2025 2:30, UK
In 1964, Sidney Poitier made Oscars history as the first Black man to be awarded the coveted ‘Best Actor’ prize for his performance in Lilies of the Field, and though the likes of James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, and Laurence Fishburne would all be nominated over the next few decades, it wouldn’t be until 2001 that another African-American’s name was called to collect the famous statuette, and his name was Denzel Washington.
A former ‘Best Supporting Actor’ winner and two-time nominee in the leading category, Washington’s victory felt almost as significant as his friend Poitier’s one almost 40 years prior, with the film that earned him the honour being Training Day.
It sees him play Alonzo Harris, a corrupt police officer working as part of a narcotics squad, and while it’s not your typical Oscar-winning role, Washington does it so well that it’s hard to argue with the decision.
In an interview with The Oklahoman, the actor spoke about the many reasons why the character of Harris appealed to him beyond the strength of the script, as he also said ‘yes’ on the advice of one of his inner circle.
“The only reason I haven’t done anything like that before is I haven’t read anything like that before,” he said, “Nobody gave it to me to read. I read it, I said, ‘Oooh, I’m playin’ this part’. In fact, I gave my son, my oldest boy, two scripts to read… He said, ‘Dad, you gotta play that one’. I said, ‘Really?’ I hadn’t even read it. I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Oh, ’cause he’s rough, he’s bad. Nobody’s seen you do that. You gotta do that one’. He was right.”
Up to this point in his career, Washington had only really played heroes, with both of his previous Oscar-nominated turns were as real people: the wrongly imprisoned boxer Rubin Carter in The Hurricane, and the titular civil rights leader in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X.
The actor was seen as such a valuable asset in attracting Black cinemagoers that the idea of casting him as the villain terrified directors and studios; hence, playing Harris allowed him to show a side that he’d never shown before, which is why he still thinks of it as his greatest ever role.
This interview was conducted in 2002, when Washington’s “oldest boy” would have been about 18 years old, already a standout in college football and well on his way to finding professional success in the United Football League (UFL) as a running back for the Sacramento Mountain Lions. He eventually decided that sport wasn’t for him and that he was going to follow his old man into the family business, and as you probably already know, his name is John David Washington, star of such films as BlacKkKlansman, Tenet, and The Piano Lesson.
It would be poetic to say that John David was inspired to go into acting the day he first read the Training Day script, but even if that’s not true, the impact that his input had on his father’s career proves that he is very much a chip off the old block.
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