Denzel Washington: ‘I’m Not That Interested’ in Winning Oscars
Denzel Washington has adopted a post-Oscars mentality after spending decades in the Hollywood machine. The two-time Academy Award winner said during a recent appearance “Jake’s Takes” while promoting his latest film “Highest 2 Lowest” that awards don’t mean that much to him.
“I’ve been at this a long time, and there’s times when I’ve won, shouldn’t have won, didn’t win, should have won,” Washington said in the below video. “Man gives the award, God gives the reward. I’m not that interested in Oscars.”
And he isn’t even that big of a fan of the two he already has: “People say, ‘Well, where do you keep it?’ I say, ‘Next to the other one,’” he said of his pair of Oscars. “I’m not bragging. I’m just telling you how I feel about it. On my last day, it ain’t going to do me a bit of good.”
Washington won Best Supporting Actor for “Glory” in 1990 and Best Actor for “Training Day” in 2002. He has also been nominated for his work in “Cry Freedom” (1987), “Malcolm X” (1992), “The Hurricane” (1999), “Flight” (2012), “Fences” (2016), “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” (2017), and “The Tragedy of Macbeth” (2021). He was notably snubbed in 2024 for “Gladiator II.”
Washington’s “Malcolm X” lose has since been deemed by many as one of the biggest Academy snubs of all-time (Al Pacino won the Best Actor award for “Scent of a Woman” instead in 1993).
Washington previously told Esquire that, after losing for “Malcolm X,” he asked his wife Pauletta Washington to start voting in his place for the Academy Awards. “I went through a time then when [my wife] Pauletta would watch all the Oscar movies — I told her, I don’t care about that,” he said. “‘They don’t care about me? I don’t care. You vote. You watch them. I ain’t watching that.’ I gave up. I got bitter. My pity party.”
Washington has also been outspoken about his “Gladiator II” and “American Gangster” auteur Ridley Scott never having won Best Director. “Ridley is overdue,” Washington told The Hollywood Reporter. “How can he not have won an Oscar? That doesn’t even make sense. I don’t believe it, actually.”
Washington also told “BBC Radio 1” that Scott not having an Oscar is proof that the Academy can’t do their “job” recognizing deserving talent. “Would you tell somebody how can this man not have an Academy Award? Do your job,” he said. “I mean seriously, though. … Believe me, and I’m not talking out a turn, he doesn’t give a…”
Washington’s frequent collaborator Spike Lee, who directed the actor in both “Malcolm X” and “Highest 2 Lowest” among many other films, previously said, “We don’t do our work for awards, which are nice, but it’s the work that is going to stand above all awards.”
