Restless Denzel Washington preps for second act as director and stage star
By REED TUCKER
You don’t tell Denzel anything. You can really rub him the wrong way by telling him something,” says Allen Hughes, who with twin brother Albert directed Denzel Washington in Friday’s post-apocalyptic action flick “The Book of Eli.”Allen Hughes learned his lesson the hard way. “I said something to him on the set once, and it was probably the third time someone told him, but I didn’t know that because I was coming back from lunch,” he says. “All [he] did was yell out, ‘38!’
“Denzel’s son, who happened to be on the set that day, was sitting there laughing. I asked his son, ‘What does that mean?’ And he said, ‘38 films.’ I shut the f - - - up with the hurry-up-ness at that point.”
Anyone’s who’s been around Hollywood long enough knows there are three immutable rules in show business. Never work with children or animals. Never tell Jude Law the baby is his. And do not bring anything less than your A-game with Washington.
The actor is one of the most intense, demanding and intelligent actors around, and those qualities have earned him a reputation as prickly among some.
“He’s like Obi-Wan on steroids with a little attitude and swagger,” says Hughes, who first broke onto the scene with 1993’s “Menace II Society.” “He’s allergic to bulls - - -, and that’s the problem. He’s a gentleman and for the most part very humble, but once you start popping bulls - - -, he’s gonna shut you down immediately, whether it be an interviewer, a director or a writer.”
Love him or fear him, those in Hollywood may not have to worry about Washington for too much longer. After “The Book of Eli,” the actor has “Unstoppable,” a Tony Scott train-disaster epic, in the can. But beyond that, audiences should get used to seeing him on the big screen less often.
In person, however, is another story.
Despite earning as much as $20 million a movie, Washington tells The Post that he’s growing weary of making “formulaic” movies, and he wants to get back to his first love: theater.
His career began with a well-received production of “Othello” while he was still a student at Fordham in the late 1970s, and an award-winning turn off-Broadway in “A Soldier’s Play” (later filmed as “A Soldier’s Story”).
After living in LA for decades, Washington and his wife — actress Pauletta Pearson Washington — are planning to relocate to their Central Park West apartment in time for his Broadway run in August Wilson’s “Fences,” opening in April. Washington will play Troy Maxson, a married sanitation worker in 1950s Pittsburgh. It’s the same role that earned James Earl Jones a Tony when the play debuted in 1987.
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