6. Denzel Washington left his first Oscars ceremony once he realized he was going to lose.
Oscar nominee Denzel Washington arrives to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nominees Luncheon on March 13, 2000 in Beverly Hills. / David McNew/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
In 1988, Washington attended the Academy Awards for the first time as a nominee, thanks to his supporting performance in Cry Freedom. He lost to Sean Connery for The Untouchables, which he had figured before the category was even called. “[Connery] was up for The Untouchables,” Washington recalled in a 2018 conversation with Jamie Foxx on Off Script. “He comes out to present an award and got a three-minute standing ovation—for presenting an award. I went to get the coats.” Laughing, Washington continued, “I said, ‘Well, I’ll get the coats, ‘cause I know I ain’t winning tonight.’” Still, Washington didn’t leave empty-handed. On his way out, the actor slipped into where the food was being laid out for the Governor’s Ball. “I see a big tray, and I’m like, ‘I’m leaving here with something.’ … Then my mother told me to get the flower arrangement. True story.”
7. Denzel Washington turned down the Brad Pitt role in Seven.
David Fincher’s twisted crime-thriller Se7en followed a pair of detectives on the trail of a wickedly smart serial killer whose motive for murder is punishing those who committed the seven deadly sins. “I thought the script was too demonic,” Washington explained on Off Script. “Then, I saw the movie and thought, ‘Oh. I blew it.’” In 1995, Se7en became a critically heralded box office hit, while Washington fronted the hit Crimson Tide, and two bombs: Virtuosity and Devil in a Blue Dress.
8. Denzel Washington ad libbed one of his most famous lines.
In Antoine Fuqua’s acclaimed 2001 drama Training Day, Washington plays a crooked cop who memorably bellows, “King Kong ain’t got sh*t on me.” That line was all Washington. “I made that up,” Washington explained in a 2012 interview with GQ. “The character’s ego, he just did not think he could lose. That was his problem.” In the same interview, Washington mentioned that King Kong was among the first movies he remembers having seen as a child.
9. Denzel Washington reunited with his childhood librarian on her 99th birthday.
When he was 7 years old, Washington walked into the library where “Miss Connie” worked and requested a “little, skinny book” that he could easily read over the weekend for a book report due Monday. Decades later, she’d tell her friends at a retirement community about how the major movie star was once a “cute little boy” who lived across the street from the library and came by often to peruse the books and chat. These friends posted videos of her stories to YouTube, where Washington found them.
While doing a press tour for Fences in 2016, Washington made a special trip to visit Miss Connie in Marietta, Georgia. Their reunion came on her 99th birthday, 50 years after they’d first met. A staff member at the senior living facility where Miss Connie lived told People, “Denzel said to us, ‘You don’t know where the road is going to take you, and who you’re going to meet that will have an impact on your life. This lady had an incredible impact on my life, and now here I am.’ So, it started with him reading those skinny little books, and now he’s making big movies.”
10. Denzel Washington’s children have followed in his (and his wife’s) footsteps.
Both of Denzel and Pauletta’s daughters and their first-born son have gotten into the film industry. Katia Washington is a producer who worked on her father’s movie Fences, then went on to produce provocative dramas like Pieces of a Woman and Malcolm & Marie, which starred her brother in a title role. Olivia Washington made her screen debut in 2013’s Lee Daniels’ The Butler. Since then, she has appeared in a string of TV shows, including Madoff, Mr. Robot, and She’s Gotta Have It. In 2021, Olivia joined her father onscreen in the crime-thriller The Little Things. As a child, John David Washington earned his first film credits as an extra in some of his father’s films, including Malcolm X and Devil in A Blue Dress. By 2018, he’d become a leading man himself, starring in such notable movies as Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, and Sam Levinson’s Malcolm & Marie.
11. Denzel Washington helped Chadwick Boseman become an actor.
Before he was the star of Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman was a Howard University student, whose tuition for an illustrious summer acting program was paid for by Washington. The two didn’t know each other; The Cosby Show star Phylicia Rashād had reached out to Washington for an education donation that would aid gifted young Black performers who’d been accepted to the program. Washington agreed, paving the way for a new generation of Black excellence in acting.
Boseman revealed this crucial connection on June 6, 2019, when he presented Washington with the 47th AFI Life Achievement Award. In his speech, Boseman said, “Imagine receiving the letter than your tuition that summer was paid for, and that your benefactor was none other than the dopest actor on the planet.” Using the pulpit of the awards’ stage, Boseman proclaimed, “An offering from a sage and a king is more than silver and gold. It is a seed of hope, a bud of faith. There is no Black Panther without Denzel Washington.”
On August 28, 2020, Boseman tragically passed away at the age of 43 following a four-year battle with colon cancer (which he only disclosed to a handful of people). Throughout his illness, Boseman continued to act—Black Panther, Da 5 Bloods, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom were all released and promoted following his diagnosis—and dedicated much of his time to working with a variety of charities.