Denzel Washington discusses his thoughts on the current political landscape in the United States.
The two-time Oscar winner, who stars in Ridley Scott’s upcoming Gladiator II, was recently asked about the 2024 presidential election, in which Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris earlier this month.
During his interview with The Sunday Times, editor Jonathan Dean also mentioned a line in Gladiator II that felt particularly relevant given the election: “Empires fall, so do emperors.”
“You know, it’s so easy to stand outside of America and say this and that,” Washington, 69, replied. “Turn around, you know? Choose a country. “Any one.”
“But listen,” the Training Day actor added. “It is all politics. All promises were not kept. And now that the information age is here, the left, right, and whatever else should learn how to use those tools to manipulate people.
There was a great line in the first film I did, Carbon Copy (1981): “Power to the people?” “Yes, they had it once—it was called the Stone Age.”
“We are all slaves to information now. We actually are. We are all slaves. So, regardless of how you feel about the leaders, whether you think one is crazy and the other is sane, you should be aware that you are being manipulated by both sides. “Period,” Washington added. “Yeah. “So, go to the movies.”
The Equalizer 3 star has previously spoken out about the importance of “opening our eyes” and holding elected officials accountable.
“I believe we, as Americans, must unite and hold all of our elected officials accountable for working together,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017, when Trump was serving his first term as president. “We need to demand that they work together through our vote, that they work together to come up with solutions.”
Elsewhere during his interview with The Sunday Times , Washington also looked back at his career, admitting that not all of his movies were hits.
“After [1992’s] Malcolm X, I made some real clunkers.” Look them up — I won’t say their names,” Washington said. “They’re all in the 1990s. But I was earning. I had responsibilities.
While the actor did not specify which of his films he considered “clunkers,” among the films he starred in during that decade were Crimson Tide, Virtuosity, Much Ado About Nothing, He Got Game, The Pelican Brief, Devil in a Blue Dress, The Preacher’s Wife, Fallen, and The Bone Collector, among others.
But Washington noted that he was prouder of his projects in the 2000s, which included Remember the Titans and Training Day .
“So, 2000…” he thought. “Well, in life, you learn, earn and then you return — as in give back. So if your life is 90 years long, up until 30 you learn and from 30 to 60 you earn.
So at the time, I was earning money. With a great agent, my career built into making money and so the earning kicked in and then life also kicked in, with bills, four kids and a house.”
