The Commercial Appeal - Go Memphis
Denzel Washington isn’t passing the torch just yet
When Jared Leto let his freak flag fly as the Joker in “Suicide Squad,” the Method-mad actor sent his castmates taunting gifts – a live rat, even a dead pig.
Denzel Washington makes clear that definitely did not happen while filming “The Little Things,” even though Leto plays cagey murder suspect Albert Sparma and Washington is the law as Deputy Sheriff Joe Deacon in the psychological thriller.
“He didn’t do any of that with me,” says Washington, 66, shutting down the question even before it’s fully finished. “Nah. He’d have been paid a visit. That wouldn’t happen.”
But the two-time Oscar winner makes it explicitly clear that he relished the opportunity to mix it up onscreen with two co-stars who have a strong case for inclusion in the next generation of American acting greats: fellow Oscar recipients Leto (“Dallas Buyers Club”) and Rami Malek (“Bohemian Rhapsody”), who plays slick lead detective Jim Baxter in “The Little Things” (in theaters and streaming on HBO Max Jan. 29).
“There’s a whole crop of these younger actors, and it’s fascinating to watch them coming up behind me,” says Washington. “Unfortunately, we lost one with Chad Boseman (who died of colon cancer in last year). But Jared is one, obviously, and Rami is doing great work. It’s inspiring and like a wake-up call. It’s like, I have to get my act together here. These guys ain’t playing.”
He went into battle with the next generation to win it, even putting on the weight he felt his emotionally broken character needed. Washington’s worldweary Deacon might look like an “overweight, over-the-hill” cautionary tale in “Little Things.” But that’s hard-earned acting preparation, he insists.
“There was a Joe Deacon diet. The sacrifices I make for my character,” says Washington with a laugh. He cops to allowing too much dessert and putting a hold on daily exercise to get fighting flabby. “Gaining the weight, that’s a piece of cake. Literally, a piece of cake. Eating big late. It’s not healthy, but it works. Milkshakes were my friend. Ice cream was my very good friend.”
He looks soft, but his mind games were hard. Leto and Washington didn’t make nice off-camera. Director John Lee Hancock says the first time the two laid eyes on each other in “Little Things” was in costume for a night scene where Deacon suspiciously checks out Sparma’s car. The coolness helped keep the screen tension.
“I stayed away from him. He stayed away from me, respectfully so,” says Washington. “We’d bow or nod from across the highway. Literally, one day we nodded across the highway from each other.”
Washington says he took his detective work a step further with Leto, spying on his co-star. “I’d follow him around. I was outside of his apartment sometimes and he didn’t know,” says Washington, who declines to elaborate. “I won’t say anything more about it. I’ll put it this way, he didn’t know.”
By the time it came to film a dramatic interrogation scene between the three characters, the creative pressure was ready to blow. With Malek’s Baxter starting the questioning, Washington insisted on watching from behind oneway glass in the observation room for the initial fireworks, Hancock says.
“Afterward, Denzel said to me, ‘Man, they are throwing down. I cannot wait to get in that room,’ ” says Hancock. “He told me, ‘I feel like I’m the old heavy
weight and I’m watching two young bucks battle in the ring.’ ”
When Washington did enter, his Deacon went unhinged when he interrogated Sparma.
“Obviously, we’re going to stay safe and not break out into a fistfight,” says Washington. “It was sort of like every man for himself. Everybody’s coming in there with their A game and let’s see what happens.”
Outside the “Little Things” arena, Washington need only look to his own household to see another of the next generation’s great actors coming up: his son, “Tenet” star John David Washington, 36. But the father advises that John David (and the world) look out for daughter Olivia, 29, who has a small role in “Little Things” and has just wrapped the drama “Solitary” with David Oyelowo.
“Remember, I said so. John David has a sister named Olivia Washington,” says Washington. “She’s really a great young actress. So his sister is coming for him.”
Washington, who has completed his role as Lord Macbeth in director Joel Coen’s “Macbeth” and is directing the Iraq War drama “Journal for Jordan” with Michael B. Jordan, started taking the Deacon weight off while filming “Little Things.” He was noticeably fitter in time to shoot flashback scenes of a younger Deacon toward the end of the
shoot in 2019.
He went back to his boxing regiment and pushed away the ice cream. “One day Rami was like, ‘Man, is it me, or are you getting smaller?’ I didn’t say anything to him, but inside I was like, ‘Oh, thank you.’ ”
Washington was confident enough in his performance that he was fine Deacon was left out of a scene involving digging and physical struggle in the desert. He was happy to let the two younger actors carry that load.
“They were out there digging and fighting and I was in my dressing room. I was like, ‘How’s it going out there? Are they still digging?’ When I came out, there were a whole lot of holes out there. Ah, to be young again.”