Denzel Washington's 3 Essential Films to Watch Before You Die
Denzel Washington is one of the greatest actors alive, but don't ask him for a top 10 movies list. Or even a top three. The man is famously not a cinephile, and he's never pretended otherwise.
When GQ asked him which three movies everyone should see before they die, Denzel froze. "Wow. Oh no. I have no idea," he said — before doing what anyone does in a panic: he blurted out The Godfather.
Fair enough. He's long said it's one of his favorite films. So then what about the other two? The Godfather Part II and Part III? Maybe. He wasn't sure.
"So many different films have affected me in different ways," he added, "but they may not have necessarily affected others." Which is a classy way of saying: don't take movie advice from me.
Eventually, he bailed himself out with a joke:
"I'm going to say two others by me. There it is, a politically correct answer."
He didn't specify which ones — but when you've got Malcolm X, Training Day, and Fences under your belt, it's a solid cop-out.
To be fair, Denzel's never claimed to be a Hollywood insider. He sees himself as a stage actor first, movie star second. He wasn't raised on cinema — he was raised in a strict religious household where The Ten Commandments and King of Kings were about the only films allowed. By the time Kubrick was dropping A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey, Denzel was, in his words, "running amok" in New York.
So no, he doesn't have deep-cut film opinions or a Letterboxd account. But if all he gives us is The Godfather and "pick any two Denzel joints," that's still a decent movie night.