
It’s a good collaboration and we’ve had good results. “There are people I’m comfortable with who know what they’re doing, so it makes my job easier. “I’ve worked with Jonathan Demme twice, Ed Zwick three times, Spike, I think, four times and Tony Scott five times,” says Washington. It’s now clear that his movies with Fuqua will be definite – if interrupted – chapters in his career.

Though he doesn’t look it, Washington will turn 60 in December. “Get in the ring and start throwing punches.” “You say you’re ready, then I’m coming out and here we go,” he says of his mindset going into a scene. Washington, then, is a bit like a prizefighter emerging from his trailer, ready to spar. You're going in there to put the work in, do something with some intensity – a little grit." "It's the same thing with making a movie. "You go into the ring, you're going in to get it in," says Fuqua, whose next film is the boxing drama Southpaw, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Boxing metaphors pepper the conversation. They are eager to talk about the previous night’s fight. They are, tellingly, amateur boxers and share the same trainer. It’s that pressurised tension that seems to most fuel Washington and Fuqua’s collaboration.
#Equalizer denzel washington movie#
“Even if it’s challenging, that’s what brings the best out of you.” Released September 26th, 2014, The Equalizer stars Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, Chloë Grace Moretz, Johnny Skourtis The R movie has a runtime of about 2 hr 12 min, and received a user. "You work with somebody who's always challenging you and himself, and just wants you to be the best," says Fuqua, whose credits since Training Day have included the White House action movie Olympus Has Fallen, the vigilante thriller Shooter and the period adventure King Arthur. Washington’s intensity is the dominant force between him and his director, as it would perhaps be in any pairing involving the veteran actor. But when one of the other regulars, a prostitute played by Chloë Grace Moretz, gets involved with the Russian mafia, his buried proficiency with violence is reawakened. The Equalizer’s evolution continues, from that stately old British gent in the 1980s to a couple of Denzel Washington movies to Queen Latifah in a new CBS series. He works at a hardware store and every night drinks tea at a diner. Washington plays a widower living a spartan life in Boston. “You don’t overthink it,” says Washington, who is not prone to brooding or rumination. You might expect the pair to have an easy-going congeniality, ready to build on the success of their partnership. They are planning a Magnificent Seven remake – "You don't get many shots at a Western," says Washington with a smile – and are interested in working on a sequel to The Equalizer.

The film, released today, has also kick-started more collaborations. In The Equalizer – a very loose adaptation of the 1980s American television drama – Washington and Fuqua have teamed up again, resuming a potent actor-director relationship. “You look up, I didn’t realise it was 12 years,” says Washington.

It's been a dozen years since the actor Denzel Washington and the director Antoine Fuqua rode the corrupt detective Alonzo Harris and their Los Angeles crime odyssey, Training Day, to Oscar glory for the former and a Hollywood breakthrough for the latter.
