Talking turkey and peanut butter
Denzel Washington has fun discussing Roman J. Israel
Sometimes celebrity interviews get a little silly, especially when the talent has been talking to the press for way too long, answering the same old questions.
So please excuse Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington, Oscar-nominated writer/director Dan Gilroy ( Nightcraw
ler) and yours truly. We’ve conspired to interrupt serious discussion of their fine new legal drama
Roman J. Israel, Esq. by first debating the different varieties of kryptonite and the best kinds of peanut butter. It will all work out, trust me.
Kryptonite comes up because Gilroy, 58, joins a conference telephone call from New York ahead of Washington, 62, who’s running a little late. We get to talking about Superman
Lives, the radically reimagined superhero movie that never happened, starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Tim Burton.
Gilroy did two rewrites on a script originally penned by Kevin Smith but, after two years of advance work 20 years ago, Warner Bros. kiboshed the production. It was just too radical a concept.
The idea seems ripe for a rethink, considering the recent success of off-kilter superhero pics such as Deadpool and Thor: Ragnarok.
But Gilroy’s having none of it: “It was too painful the first time.”
Suddenly, Washington joins the conversation, finds out we’re talking about Superman, and poses a question any movie fan or comic book geek should be able to answer with ease — or so you’d think. “What colour was kryptonite?” he asks. “All different colours,” I answer. “Green, red, blue, white . . . ”
“I thought it was only green,” Washington says, sounding genuinely confused. “It was green on the TV show!”
“I thought it was only green, too,” Gilroy says, “and I worked on the script!” Sorry, guys. Check it out on Wikipedia. We draw closer to Roman J. Israel, Esq. as our three-way debate moves on to peanut butter.
Washington’s title character, an idealistic lawyer who is “on the spectrum” of autism, has many eccentric habits, such as buying Jif peanut butter by the caseload and consuming it nightly for dinner.
Gilroy: “I’m a peanut-butter fanatic, but that was actually Denzel’s idea.” Washington: “So wait, Dan, you’re not a Jif man?”
Gilroy: “No, I’m not a Jif man, I’m more of a natural, decently ground, high-end peanut-butter man. And since we’re all older guys, remember the marshmallow thing you could put on peanut-butter sandwiches?”
Washington (singing the ad jingle): “It takes Marshmallow Fluff to make a Fluffernutter! Fluff and lots of peanut butter.”
This nutty exchange would no doubt appeal to Washington’s detail-obsessed Roman J. Israel. No axe is too small to grind for this dude, whose big mouth is always getting him into trouble, and Washington seems to really enjoy playing the role.
It’s one of the star’s best performances in years, likely to nab him another Oscar nomination — which would make it his eighth as an actor, with two wins: Best Actor for Training Day (2001) and Best Supporting Actor for Glory (1989).
“Hopefully all my characters mean something, but Roman is someone I just feel for,” Washington says. “It’s like, ‘C’mon, Roman!’ I talk to him like he’s somebody outside of myself.” Does he ever talk back? “If he started talking back, then I know I got problems!” Washington answers, laughing. “No, it’s just from watching scenes or watching the movie. I go, ‘Oh, don’t do that, Roman!’ you know? You root for him, because he’s trying so hard.”
At the TIFF 2017 world premiere of the film, where it screened straight from the editing room (it has since had a helpful recut), Washington told the audience in the Ryerson Theatre that his character was “on the spectrum” of autism.
He elaborates on this and how he developed the role by watching YouTube clips.
“I’d say he’s like a two out of 10 on the autism spectrum, something more like Asperger’s. He mimics neurotypical behaviour. These are just some of those characters I found to be true for him. I did research on YouTube. You can find anything, all you want, on the internet.”
Neither Washington nor Gilroy would like Roman J. Israel, Esq. to be viewed as a message movie of any kind.
“When people ask me, ‘What do you want people to get from a movie?’ I always say, ‘It depends upon what they bring to it,’ ” Washington says.
“So I wouldn’t dare to try to figure out what it’s supposed to mean for someone else, because I don’t know them. Everybody comes into the movie theatre with whoever they are and it means different things to different people.”
There’s no point, either, in asking Washington what kind of role he’d like to play next. The interview gets silly again when he points out that American Thanksgiving is looming and all he’s thinking about is dinner.
“My next ‘role’ will be the butter roll! We work on Thursday! Turkey and butter rolls, all day!” Peter Howell is the Star’s movie critic. His column usually runs Fridays.