Quote

What we did [shooting Fences] was we got young students from Carnegie Mellon, the acting and theater students, and we had them as our understudies. I told them, You have to be off book and be ready. If Viola [Davis] has to leave you have to jump in.

Denzel Washington

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Denzel Washington
Age: 69
Born: 1954
Born: December 28
Actor
Basketball Player
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Politician
Screenwriter
Spokesperson
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Mount Vernon
New York
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr.
Told
Carnegie
Ready
Davis
Fence
Acting
Jump
Young
Shooting
Book
Theater
Understudies
Students
Viola
Leave
Fences

More quotes by Denzel Washington

Image
[Movie Fences] is more than holds up today. We have had a tremendous response at the screenings.
Denzel Washington
Image
You don't know when you're being watched. That's one of the weird things about celebrity. It's my least favorite part of acting, celebrity.
Denzel Washington
Image
I don't look back, no. Maybe when I'm older people say, 'What's your favorite film?' I say, 'My next one.' I'm not interested in sitting around I just don't, never have.
Denzel Washington
Image
A sociopath will do anything to win. Anything.
Denzel Washington
Image
My mother used to tell me: You gotta smile more. Because if you don't smile, the way you look at people, they'll think you're mad at them.
Denzel Washington
Image
As an actor in the theater you're taught that you never play a bad guy. You have to love who you are. You can't say, Oh, I'm a bad guy. How do you play that?
Denzel Washington
Image
When you look in one direction where Troy's chair was, you could see out through the yard across the street, there was an old cork bar advertisement for five cents. We wanted it to feel like this was real life [in Fences] and that it extended blocks and blocks.
Denzel Washington
Image
Say what you really want to say.
Denzel Washington
Image
We'll all retire from life at some point. The great thing about acting is you don't necessarily have to retire.
Denzel Washington
Image
It's not what you know, it's what you can prove.
Denzel Washington
Image
Acting, it's not my life, my children and my family, that's life. I'll get up every morning, God willing, for that.
Denzel Washington
Image
There's a book called The Sociopath Next Door. I thought most sociopaths were violent. In fact, they aren't. But almost all sociopaths want to win, no matter what.
Denzel Washington
Image
I work hard for the audience. It's entertainment. I don't need validation.
Denzel Washington
Image
I worked with Sidney Lumet years ago, and we had a long rehearsal process, and he would tape out the entire set on the stage, so I stole that from him.
Denzel Washington
Image
People have said to me for a long time, Man you're funny. I say, Well, I'm quick, but being funny on purpose, take after take - that's why I said for me it was new territory, and so by improvising something might come out that might be good. And it's film, so they can cut it if it isn't.
Denzel Washington
Image
Hate put me in prison. Love's gonna bust me out.
Denzel Washington
Image
[Martin] Scorsese probably could have directed Schindler's List and [Steven] Spielberg probably could have directed Goodfellas. But it's as much to do with the difference in culture as it is with race.
Denzel Washington
Image
Do what you gotta do so you can do what you wanna do.
Denzel Washington
Image
You don't have to kill somebody to play a murderer. You have to read the script and interpret the character.
Denzel Washington
Image
I walk by faith, not by sight.
Denzel Washington