Denzel the last pure move star?

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He could represent one of the last few of a certain type, of course. For example, even Arnold Schwarzenegger is not exactly drawing in as many viewers as he had during the 1980s and 1990s. Denzel Washington seems to have been in some better films as of late, as well, which helped.

The Robots, 1978, by Kraftwerk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXa9tXcMhXQ

if it wasn't for tony scott, denzel would be acting in b movies just like Snipes.

Well sometimes Denzel act in almost B-movies material but he's just so fuc/ing immense that his presence makes any movies far more interesting than it should be, it's a natural ability to elevate any material he's given to superior levels and of course no matter the movie, critically acclaimed or not he will put people a$$ in theaters.

I love this quote from the article :

“He is a brand. Really, it’s no different than Marvel or Pixar. People hear Denzel Washington and they show up.”

That's what he is. As for Tony Scott...it's more like if it wasn't for Denzel, Tony would certainly be doing more flop movies ala Domino, especially with the kind of old school projects he had in mind. And Tony was perfectly aware that Denzel was the goose that lays the golden egg, for their last two movies, Denzel wasn't particularly interested but Tony almost begs him to do them and Denzel finally accepted for his friend and the 20 millions ca$h certainly.

Boisansoif your fanboyism is just way over the top.
Tony Scott could easily get another box office draw instead of Denzel. It's just that they like to work with eachother, just like Scorcese and Dicaprio. Only in your fantasy world did Tony "beg" Denzel who "finally" accepted.

My fantasy world is all in the Pelham 123 DvD bonus interview on the movie's set (he also talked about it during the Unstoppable's promo) he explains how Denzel was not interested and that he had to call him 3 times within a month, almost begging him to consider the role, saying that it was different than his Inside Man character, etc...and it was not written on paper by a journalist or whatever, it all come from Tony Scott mouth. You're lucky I couldn't find the interview on YouTube.


Sure Tony Scott has his connections with a lot of respected 50+ veteran actors but none of them are as consistent as Denzel when it comes to box office, especially for these kind of old school, unglamourous action movies, they all had disappointing BO results, the subject of this topic says it all. And there is also the talent, for Tony, Denzel is the best (along with Gene Hackman) that's more than a sufficient reason for him to insist.


I won't bash Tony Scott, he was a fine director on his own right and gave to Denzel 2 great roles (the first two) and I'm sure Denzel liked working with him but a 2 times oscars winner deserved better than the last 2 or 3 movies/roles they did together, Scorsese, that's what he need.

I hope that my fanboyism was not over the top this time, excepted in the fact that I bought on DvD collector what is Denzel worst movie since The Preacher's Wife :)

Denzel originally dropped out of Unstoppable back in 2009. They say it was over a salary dispute (Fox wanted to lower the budget) but imo I think Denzel just used that as a reason to not want to do it, especially since he just did a "train" movie with Taking of Pelham 123. Scott used the entire European press junket for promoting Pelham 123 to basically beg Denzel to reconsider, and Denzel eventually relented. Denzel is loyal to directors who he has good working relationship with and trusts. He worked with Tony Scott 5 times, Spike Lee 4 times, Ed Zwick 3 times, Jonathan Demme twice, Carl Franklin twice, Norman Jewison twice, and he's about to work with Antoine Fuqua for the 3rd time on The Magnificent Seven remake.

Every director who he's had success with (whether critically and/or commercially) he usually works with again. Him and Scott were also good friends as well (he admitted in an interview recently for The Equalizer he has a picture of Tony in his study that is hard for him to look at sometimes) so it's not hard to speculate Denzel at least did Unstoppable because of his friendship to Scott.

Posted a link about Denzel dropping out of Unstoppable.

http://variety.com/2009/film/news/denzel-washington-exits-unstoppable- 1118005944/#

I can't see Denzel in a Scorsese picture.

I'm not sure for the majority of today's audience Scorsese is the big thing. I think many of them don't even know who Scorsese is... apart from "the guy who directed The Wolf of Wall Street".

Btw Unstoppable is an awesome film.