Denzel Washington is recalling his response to shedding the perfect actor Oscar to Kevin Spacey in 2000.
The Gladiator II actor, who had already gained one Oscar and scored three different nominations earlier than that yr’s ceremony, obtained one other nomination for his function as Rubin Carter in 1999’s The Hurricane. He was up in opposition to Spacey for American Magnificence, Russell Crowe for The Insider, Richard Farnsworth for The Straight Story and Sean Penn for Candy and Lowdown, nevertheless, the Academy Award finally went to Spacey (Washington gained the Golden Globe for finest actor in a movement image drama that yr).
“At the Oscars, they called Kevin Spacey’s name for American Beauty,” he recalled to Esquire journal. “I have a memory of turning around and looking at him, and nobody was standing but the people around him. And everyone else was looking at me. Not that it was this way. Maybe that’s the way I perceived it. Maybe I felt like everybody was looking at me. Because why would everybody be looking at me? Thinking about it now, I don’t think they were.”
Washington continued of his response, “I’m sure I went home and drank that night. I had to. I don’t want to sound like, ‘Oh, he won my Oscar,’ or anything like that. It wasn’t like that. And you know, there was talk in the town about what was going on over there on that side of the street, and that’s between him and God. I ain’t got nothing to do with that. I pray for him. That’s between him and his maker.”
The actor beforehand gained the Oscar for finest supporting actor for 1990’s Glory, nevertheless, The Hurricane was Washington’s second time scoring a finest actor nom as he beforehand was nominated for 1993’s Malcolm X however misplaced to Al Pacino for Scent of a Lady that yr.
“I went through a time then when [my wife] Pauletta [Washington] would watch all the Oscar movies — I told her, I don’t care about that. Hey: ‘They don’t care about me? I don’t care,’” he informed the journal. “You vote. You watch them. I ain’t watching that. I gave up. I got bitter. My pity party. So I’ll tell you, for about fifteen years, from 1999 to 2014 when I put the beverage down, I was bitter.”
Two years later, Washington lastly gained the Academy Award for finest actor for his function as Alonzo in 2001’s Coaching Day. And he had since earned 4 extra finest main actor Oscar nominations.
