Denzel Washington has won the Academy Award twice but says awards are hardly a motivating factor for him.
During the press tour of his new film “Highest 2 Lowest”, Washington told journalist Jake Hamilton, “I don’t do it for Oscars. I don’t care about that kind of stuff.” “I’ve been at this a long time, and there’s time when I won and shouldn’t have won and then didn’t win and should’ve won. Man gives the award. God gives the reward.” Washington explained.
Addressing his two Oscar wins and nine Academy Award nominations, he said “I’m not that interested in Oscars. People ask me, ‘Where do I keep it?’ Well, next to the other one. On my last day, [Oscars] aren’t going to do me a bit of good.” The actor won his first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for “Glory” in 1990. In 2002, he was honoured with the Best Actor award for “Training Day”, alongside Ethan Hawke, who was nominated.
Hawke last year recalled Washington’s indifference towards the Oscars in an interview with Chris Wallace.
“You don’t want an award to improve your status. You want to improve the award’s status. That’s the way he thinks,” Hawke explained.
In his prolific career, Washington has starred in a plethora of prestigious and commercially successful titles, including “Malcolm X”, “Inside Man”, “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, “Fight” and “Fences”.
Washington will later be seen in Spike Lee's "Highest 2 Lowest", a reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 film "High and Low".
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