According to Spike Lee, Denzel Washington isn’t planning to add to the four films that he’s already directed.
Whilst Denzel Washington continues to be one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons as a movie star, he may well be done as a director.
Despite helming four films (with one of them receiving a Best Picture Oscar nod: that’d be Fences), Washington is reportedly finished with directing. That news comes from Spike Lee, who revealed Washington’s decision during a Variety interview with Bradley Cooper.
Spike Lee and Denzel Washington have been friends and collaborators for a long time, so there’s no reason to doubt Lee’s comments. Assuming that Washington is finished, it would certainly be a shame for him to exit directing, given that he’s proven himself really rather decent at it.
As it stands, Denzel Washington’s directorial filmography includes The Great Debaters, Antoine Fisher, Fences and A Journal For Jordan.
2016’s Fences got an Oscar nod for Best Picture (and a win for Viola Davis in the Best Supporting Actress category) and given the respect that Washington commands in the industry, you’d expect that creatives would be lining up to collaborate and support him. However, it seems that for whatever reason (and Lee declines to give one) the actor may have helmed his final film.
Should this prove to be true, we suppose the silver lining to this cloud is that hopefully, we get plenty more Denzel on cinema screens for many years to come.
He’s currently shooting Gladiator 2 for Ridley Scott then after that, he’s set to play the legendary conqueror Hannibal in another collaboration with Antoine Fuqua (the pair of them polished off The Equalizer trilogy this year, and they’ve also made The Magnificent Seven and Training Day together).
What’s next for Denzel Washington after that, we don’t know but we’ll let you know when we hear more. After we’ve gone and watched Man On Fire again. Seems only right to do that.
