|
The 2001 crime drama Training Day represented a watershed moment in Denzel Washington‘s career, garnering him his second Academy Award, his first as Best Actor in a Leading Role. The film also earned co-star Ethan Hawke a Best Supporting Actor nomination. According to Washington, it was very different as it was originally scripted as a Lethal Weapon-type of film.
“I don’t think it was written for a Black guy,” Washington told The Hollywood Reporter on the profile about director Antoine Fuqua. “It was more like a plaid-shirt [wearing] guy with beer bottles in the back.” The actor credited Fuqua for making it the way it turned out to be. “Antoine was the one that brought gangster to it.”
Fuqua was inspired watching gangster films growing up when making the 2001 film. “I was excited to put the camera on him,” he remembered. “On [Denzel’s] very first scene, I remember covering Denzel and I got everything I wanted as a director. I felt good about it. But I’m this young guy and a little nervous. I don’t want to screw this up. So I turned to Denzel and said, ‘You want to come to the monitor to take a look to see if you’re happy?’ And Denzel turned to me and said, ‘Man, you’re flying this plane. Call me when you’re ready,’ and then got up and walked away. Then I looked at Ethan and he gave me a look like, ‘Yep,’ and he walked away. It was a confirmation that they trusted me. It empowered me to really go for it.”
Written by David Ayer, the film follows a rookie cop (Hawke) who spends his first day as a Los Angeles narcotics officer with a rogue detective (Washington), who isn’t what he appears to be. Fuqua has several projects, including Amazon Prime Video’s The Terminal List and the Hulu docu-series Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers. For more on his career, including his rise and his latest projects, you can check out the piece at THR.