Courtesy: TIFF
Early at the TIFF Maverick's talk with Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua, Washington quickly jolted upright in his seat. "I just had a mother flashback. My mother just said, ‘Sit up boy!'" he laughed. The moderator and host for the night Jesse Wente pointed out his own mother in the crowd. "That's a real producer," Washington said. And from then, the audience didn't stand a chance.
Between Washington and his collaborator Fuqua, the charm offensive was on high. The two of them have a wit and rapport with each other the made it impossible for the audience to tune out. And anyone who did missed out on some real, earnest insight from two men who know the movie business.
Wente lead the duo through their respective histories which had some amusing overlapping points. They both went to university to play basketball and fell in to the arts to get an easy credit. When Washington fell in love with Shakespeare at the start of his career, Fuqua used his creative eye in music videos, around 70 by his estimation. When Fuqua casually mentioned a video he did with Prince, Washington called out his name dropping. "Michael [Jackson] called me but I was busy," Denzel joked, mimicking Fuqua.
Washington and Fuqua got together through their wives who were friends at church. Their first movie Training Day won Washington as Oscar for Best Actor and earned Fuqua a nomination for best director and premiered at TIFF in 2001. The duo is now back with their second movie together, The Equalizer about a former CIA agent who uses his training to protect a young woman (Chloe Grace Moretz) from the Russian mob.
The Equalizer was written with Washington in mind for the lead role, but as someone who says he hates when people write parts for him, he gives the producers credit for keeping that small fact under wraps. "First of all, you don't know me," he said with a smile. "People always say, ‘Wow Training Day, what a stretch!' Well you don't know me. I had you fooled with all of that other stuff."
The duo is teaming up again for a take on the 1960 western The Magnificent Seven. Although they have both worked with horses in the past, Washington will have five months to train with them before they start shooting. On stage Denzel mimed riding a horse in his seat and then laughed saying, "That's the bad version. That is what I want to get away from."
The remaining screening of The Equalizer at TIFF is sold out but it will hit theaters on September 26.