Denzel Washington posing in a suit at the premiere of Columbia Picture's 'The Equalizer 2'.

Celebrity

Denzel Washington Once Named the 1 Character He Loved More Than Anyone Else He’s Played

Denzel Washington reflected on portraying one of his most awkward, but relatable, characters at a time he was looking to challenge himself in movies.

by Antonio Stallings

Published on July 13, 2023

3 min read

Actor Denzel Washington has played many interesting characters over the course of his career. But there was one Washington admitted that he had special fondness for.

Denzel Washington shared this movie had his favorite character

Washington reached a bit of a crossroads in his career. After he reached a certain age, he began reflecting back on his work. Despite his accomplishments, the Oscar-winner felt compelled to do more meaningful films in his older years.

“When I turned 60 and started to think about my career differently, I’m like — this ain’t dress rehearsal. I really don’t know how many years I have left on this planet, so I just want to maximize the effort and utilize the gifts I’ve been given,” Washington once told The Inquirer.

This led him to the movie Roman J. Israel, Esq., which followed a civil rights lawyer on the autism spectrum. The movie was written and directed by Nightcrawler filmmaker Dan Gilroy, who’d always wanted to work with Washington.

“I came offNightcrawler and I spent eight months writing this script, and I wasn’t paid to write it. I wrote it for Denzel, though I had never met him before,” Gilroy said.

Washington did the feature because he was fascinated with the character, and was familiar with others who had a similar personality to Roman’s.

“The thing about Roman is he can read any book with total recall, but he can’t read people. That is really fascinating to play. You want to get the behavior right, but you also want to do it with empathy, to bring the proper humanity to the role,” he said.

Because of this, he ranked playing the lawyer as one of his top roles.

“We overlook people like Roman, It’s easy for them to fall through the cracks of society. And maybe for that reason, I can tell you I love this guy more than any other character I’ve played in my life,” he said.

Washington is used to playing smooth characters who are in control like in The Equalizer or Man on Fire. But there have been deviations from these types of leading-men roles in many of his other films, including Roman J. Israel. Washington found himself having to play up the awkwardness of the character. But it was a side of himself that he enjoyed sharing with audiences.

“I have an inner awkwardness. I embrace that,” Washington said in an Essence interview. “I’ve been known to run into things. Roman says, ‘I don’t pay that much attention to my personal administration.’ I definitely can relate to that.”

Roman’s awkward nature was accentuated by his outdated and sometimes baggy wardrobe. But Washington found his character’s demeanor and overall sense of style to be very relatable.

“It’s not the worst thing in the world to put that same pair of socks on,” Washington said. “They’re right there by the bed. They’re in a really good spot. Just pick them up and put them back on. Who needs a suit? I like old funky Adidas pants, you know? I like those pants. What’s wrong with that?”

How some in the media treated Washington while he was in his Roman persona also gave the actor more insight into his character. Washington found the responses to his in-character appearance very enlightening.

“I’m just an actor playing a character. But you’re reading these comments and you’re thinking, ‘Wow, so that’s how it is.’ You get just a glimpse, just a taste of what people like Roman have to live with every day. It was instructive,” he said.

How Denzel Washington came up with his look for ‘Roman J. Israel, Esq.’

Washington felt Roman would dress like someone from another time. To emulate this, the Training Day star looked up pictures of people in the 1970s as a reference. He even turned to his own pictures for inspiration.

“I felt like he was stuck somewhere in [the 1970s]. I picked ‘77,” Washington once told Entertainment Weekly. “And I looked at my own pictures. I said, ‘Oh, yeah’. I googled black men in 1977. From Dr. J or whoever it was. One thing leads to another, you just start heading down that road, your journey.”