Two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington suffered a recent injury that “forces me to slow down,” he shared in a recent interview.
In far-reaching conversation with The New York Times published Feb. 8, the Training Day star said he “bit my tongue almost half-off a few months ago. It’s affecting my speech,” and reflected that it forced him to “slow down.”
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Washington, currently in rehearsals for an upcoming Broadway production of Othello, where he’ll play the tragic Shakespearean character opposite Jake Gyllenhaall as the devious Iago, told the outlet that he has to be more conscious of how he speaks due to the injury. “It’s hard because my tongue is swollen. It has affected everything,” he shared.
But he doesn’t seem to see it as a hindrance, quipping that one should “jump in the water and enjoy yourself, instead of worrying about drowning.”
Washington also mused about his film career in the interview, admitting that money has always been a factor when it comes to his professional choices. “I’ve taken every job for money. There’s no job I’ve taken where I went, ‘You guys just keep the money. I’m just so glad to be an actor. I don’t even want the money.’”
The Fences star, who has taken on some of Shakespeare’s most powerful roles in both film (Macbeth) and stage (Richard III), shared that “acting onstage as opposed to acting in movies” gives him “the greatest joy.”
Washington, whose father was a preacher, also touched on his recent decision to get baptized and begin courses to obtain a minister’s license. “I was prophesied in my youth that I would travel the world and preach or speak to millions of people,” he explained.
“I used to think that I was doing that through my work. Now I’m trying to be a bit more specific, speaking about my faith,” Washington continued, sharing that “a woman was sitting in my mother’s beauty shop in March 1975… every time I looked up, I saw this woman looking at me, and she said she was having a prophecy. She didn’t say anything about me being an actor, but I have traveled the world, and I am speaking more and more.”
Next: Denzel Washington’s Son John David Makes a Bold Declaration About Personal Impact of Actor’s Fame
