Denzel Washington surprised his EQ director by inventing a character trait

Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua teamed up for the first time in 2021 “Training day”. Denzel’s casting in the film caused some controversymainly because it was his first time playing a bad guy, and some groups feared he would squander the years of goodwill built up playing morally upright characters in his many projects. But his performance as corrupt LAPD narcotics officer Alonzo Harris proved that no matter what role you cast him in, Washington can create a memorable and charming character that, for better or worse, will stick with audiences long after , as credits will appear.

13 years after Fuqua helped Washington prove he could play villains just as well as any other character, the duo reunited for a very different type of project. In 2014’s The Equalizer, the veteran star played a man so committed to doing what’s right that he was willing to commit mass violence in pursuit of cosmic justice. In the film, Washington played Robert McCall, a former Marine and DIA officer who embodies the archetype of the classic action guy who really knows how to punch and shoot people but just wants to be left alone. When we first meet McCall, he has put his fighting days behind him, but is forced to demonstrate his elite skills after a teenage girl, Terry/Alina (Chloe Grace Moretz), is abused by members of the Russian mafia. It seems that in order to play this reluctant avenger, Washington created an incredible character trait that, in doing so, harkened back to his “Training Day” performance.

The Equalizer movies, now three in number, are based on the 1980s CBS series of the same name. But Antoine Fuqua’s films chart their own course, creating a very different story for Denzel Washington’s Robert McCall. For one thing, the Washington version of the character has OCD, which not only wasn’t an aspect of the original series, but wasn’t even in the movie script.

When we first meet McCall in 2014’s The Equalizer, he’s a widower from Boston living a quiet life working at a hardware store. Of course, as the situation develops, he reveals a completely different side of himself, displaying the kind of fighting skills that could even give John Wick a run for his money. While Washington might have approached such an archetypal action character without thinking about it, the man brought his characteristic insight to the role, telling BBC“The producer wanted a name and a basic premise, and that was it. I helped develop the character a little more.”

One of his greatest contributions to McCall’s character seems to have been the obsessive aspect that Washington began reading about after signing on for the project. The actor told the BBC: “I developed a backstory for myself that everything he did — and I’m glad we’re not talking — caused some kind of damage or post-traumatic stress. He’s lost his wife—we’re not quite sure why—and it shows in this obsessive behavior.” This behavior is most evident in McCall’s use of his watch to time various takedowns of entire gangs. But what’s really interesting about the whole OCD element of McCall’s character, is that Washington did not tell his director until filming began.

During The filming of Denzel Washington’s “Training Day” regularly went off the script and the movie was all the better. Director Antoine Fuqua also seemed to encourage such improvisation, having already recruited real members of the gang to appear in the film and generally wanting things to feel as authentic and spontaneous as possible.

It looks like Washington has continued that tradition of adding his own flare to the script with The Equalizer, too. Fuqua pointed to The Rich Eisen Show that the actor “made up OCD,” adding, “It’s something he just started doing. I didn’t even know.” Explaining how he discovered Washington’s addition to Robert McCall’s character, Fuqua said:

“(Denzel) wanted a napkin, he wanted a cup, and we were sitting there in the first (film) in a coffee shop, and he just started doing it, and I just let go of the camera, I just started filming it. part of that character, so there’s something about Robert McCall that Denzel really responds to, and you have to ask him what that is.”

Fuqua compared the moment to when Washington added his famous “King Kong” catchphrase to Alonso’s final speech during the climax of “Training Day,” another completely improvised moment that caught the director off guard. Washington continued this tradition on the set of The Tragedy of Macbeth. too. Whether or not he tried this with his Gladiator II character is yet to be confirmed, but it would no doubt give Ridley Scott the infamous grunt, so hopefully we’ll hear some stories about Denzel Washington injecting the director with some wild improv.