Jun 10, 2023
story goes: denzel washington told his agent “you ain’t taking no calls for the next year; im prepping for one role and one role only”
[^not sure how true being that he was featured in two films within the next year]
that was in 1990 and the role was to depict El Hajj Malik El Shabazz in Warner’s big screen adaptation of Alex Haley’s book. Warner knew they wanted Denzel, Denzel wanted the role (even before Spike was brought in to direct the picture) Denzel allegedly went about living life as a devout Muslim for the following year leading up to filming in 1991.
