Denzel Washington has too many accolades to list — but don’t call him a “Hollywood actor.”
“What’s the definition of a Hollywood actor?” Washington, 70, said on the Sunday, March 23, broadcast of CBS Sunday Morning. “Myself, I’m from Mount Vernon, so I’m a ‘Mount Vernon actor.’ I don’t know what ‘Hollywood’ means.”
Washington, who hails from Mount Vernon, New York, further explained that he sees himself as “a stage actor who does film.”
“It’s not the other way around. I did stage first. I learned how to act on stage, not on film,” Washington explained. “Movies are a filmmaker’s medium. You shoot it, and then you’re gone and they cut together and add music and do all of that. Theater is an actor’s medium. The curtain goes up, nobody can help you.”
The two-time Oscar winner is now returning to his theatrical roots and stars opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in a new revival of William Shakespeare’s Othello. This version, however, takes place in the modern era in the military. (Washington, in his sixth Broadway performance, plays the titular character while Gyllenhaal brings the villainous Iago to life.)
“People, you know, they ordinarily think, ‘Oh yeah, it’s about jealousy. And he betrays him,’” Washington added to CBS about reimagining the classic tragedy. “No, it’s about two soldiers who trust each other with their lives.”
Speaking to the broadcaster during a tour of NYC’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Washington further revealed how performing Shakespeare has changed through the years. (As a younger actor, Washington performed the likes of Richard III, Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing and Macbeth.)
“I know a lot less now. I thought I knew everything then,” Washington quipped. “I didn’t really like the part [of Othello] ’cause I wasn’t wise enough to understand it. Now I understand it’s really about a bond, you know, that these characters have. He loves not wisely, but too well.”
James Earl Jones, who died in 2024, was the last actor to play Othello before Washington during a 1982 production.
“James Earl Jones was my northern star when I was in college,” Washington mused. “He was who I wanted to be. I didn’t get to see his Othello, but I know it wasn’t as good as my 22-year-old interpretation! But you know, it’s my turn.”
He added, “I worked my whole career for this moment. This is a 48-year journey for me. It’s fascinating to have been too young for the part, and some may say now too old. But 48 years of experience, so 48 years of pain and pleasure and life has informed my approach to playing the role.”
Preparing to take on one of the greatest Shakespeare leads, however, was not without challenges.
“I bit my tongue almost half-off a few months ago,” Washington revealed during a profile with The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast last month. “It’s affecting my speech. It forces me to slow down. I have to use it.”
The injury has made it especially difficult for Washington to deliver the line, “Whither will you that I go to answer this your charge?” in the play.
“It’s hard because my tongue is swollen,” he added. “It has affected everything.”
Othello officially opens on Broadway Sunday, March 23.
