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Denzel Washington has set the record straight after making headlines in the past few days over claims that he is set to retire after making his next five films, which include Black Panther 3.
The Oscar winner, who is currently receiving rave reviews and awards buzz for his performance in Gladiator 2, recently told Australia’s Today programme that there are now only a handful of filmmakers that he wishes to work with.
“I am playing Hannibal. After that, I’ve been talking to Steve McQueen about a film,” said Washington. “After that, Ryan Coogler is writing a part for me in the next Black Panther. After that, I’m going to do the film Othello. After that, I’m going to do King Lear. After that, I’m going to retire.”
However, the 69-year-old Malcolm X star has since moved to clarify what he meant by the comments. Speaking to BuzzFeed, Washington insisted: “I didn’t say I was going to go into retirement. I said that it has to be a level of interest for me.”
He added: “I’m more interested in getting behind the camera, so that’s about five years out. It’s very difficult. I may have used the word ‘retire’… but I look at life in three sections – you learn, you earn and you return. I’m in the return part of life.”
Elsewhere, Washington, who plays the ruthless businessman Macrinus in the new Ridley Scott film, was asked, “How gay is the Roman empire?”
He replied: “I actually kissed a man in the film but they took it out, they cut it, I think they got chicken.”
“I kissed a guy full on the lips and I guess they weren’t ready for that yet. I killed him about five minutes later. It’s Gladiator. It’s the kiss of death,” he told Gayety.
It’s not the only kiss that was cut – Paul Mescal has revealed that an improvised kiss between him and Pedro Pascal was also removed from the movie.
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“There was a moment when we were rehearsing my fight scene with Pedro, and I had an idea towards the end of the scene to kiss Pedro on the forehead,” Mescal told Entertainment Weekly.
“I did it in one of the takes, and then we’re getting the radio messages back to Ridley [in video village], and I was like, ‘Ridley: Kiss on the forehead, did you like it? Yay or nay?’”
“There was radio silence for a second. His radio crackles back, and [Ridley] goes, ‘I’m afraid I did.’”
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