Posted on 04/15/2024 7:16:06 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Throughout his career, Denzel Washington has embodied a fearless dedication to his acting roles. In every character, he imbues a deep psychological exploration informed by a process of extensive research, with Washington diving into the nuances and minutiae of their personal lives and habits.
Whether portraying a ruthless drug lord in American Gangster, a corrupt cop in Training Day or a critical historical figure in Malcolm X, Washington has always approached his roles with an unrivalled commitment, proving his deep-set work ethic and boundless professionalism.
There was one movie in particular where Washington took his acting dedication to the next level. In the 2012 action thriller film Safe House, Washington plays a veteran CIA operative who is accused of having betrayed the agency, while Ryan Reynolds plays the officer in charge of the safe house where Washington’s character is being interrogated.
One scene, in particular, was of great danger to the actor, but Washington refused to use a stunt double, preferring to see what the experience of torture would be like, thus gaining a better understanding of his character’s situation. Both Washington and Reynold had been in training with professionals in order to get into top shape for the film.
There was little Washington could do, though, to prepare for the moment his character was to be waterboarded. A stunt double was on hand for the torture method, but Washington told the film’s director, Daniel Espinosa, that he wanted to take on the scene alone.
In an interview with Vulture, Espinosa remember the moment Washington showed his acting bravery. The director noted, “I went up to Denzel and told him, ‘Time to go, now is the moment where the stunt guy kicks in,’ and he looked at me and he said, ‘Let’s go.’ ‘Are you sure?’ ‘I’m sure.’ And I was terrified, but I let him go and I had to watch him do it.”
Waterboarding is a method of torture in which water is poured over a cloth covering the face of a victim so they experience the sensation of drowning. Washington admitted that the experience was “strange”, to say the least. “You can’t breathe in, because the water comes in, and it’s filling up your mouth,” he said.
“That was just one time for a short time,” he added. “Imagine having that done for 20, 30 seconds?” Washington admitted that he would likely give up the information if he were to experience waterboarding for real, even if he would not “necessarily tell the truth.”
Reynolds witnessed the scene and noted how Washington had gone “all out” for Safe House. “I would definitely not like to be waterboarded,” he said. “It was intense. Disturbing. I had sympathetic pain. I always get sympathetic pain. I wish I didn’t. I felt like I was drowning.”
In the scene, Robert Patrick plays the person who does the waterboarding to Washington’s character, and he admits that the scene was largely the reason he wanted to do the film in the first place. “It’s a brutal, brutal scene, and I wanted to work with Denzel, and it’s a world I know a lot about,” he said before noting how Washington had managed to last around five seconds of the torture, which Patrick thought was “pretty damn good”.
See the cast and crew of Safe House discuss the scene below.
Let’s see how long Obama lasts.
He appears to be one of the few decent and moral people in Hollyweird.
I remember when the now-deceased black ‘newsman’ on 60 minutes interviewed the highly hypocritical D.W. In one question the ‘reporter’ noted that he had heard that DW demanded $16M for each role. DW’s chest poked out, his shoulders straightened, and he snidely smiled while he beamed, “Yes.”
In the very next interrogative the ‘reporter’ asked something similar to: “Is it true that other actors demand much more?”
In one millisecond the wry smile disappeared to a frown, the shoulders slumped and his back sagged as he said, “The playing field is not even.”
Poor, sweet baby. I almost cried. /s
Any lucky aviator who went thru SERE in Warner Springs (during Vietnam) got to check it out at least once while in the compound. It sucked but it’s not torture.
That’s not waterboarding.
At least NOTHING like what I experienced in Warner Springs.
Real waterboarding is absolutely brutal.
Why is he hypocritical? Because he said, “Put God first?”
From what people who have worked with him tell me, he is a genuinely good man and he is known to help people around him when he learns that are having trouble. He’s a good man
While Democrats have tended to exaggerate its effects, waterboarding is a PG-rated version of a much more painful treatment.
Hugh Collar left an account of what it was like to be given the water cure. “After the first searing pain you don’t feel anything more for a bit; you are out cold, but the coming around is pretty terrible, too.”
The water cure was not only painful; it was often fatal. Smith recalled that two Chinese prisoners who had been given the water cure were returned to their cells, dead. Sometimes, after weeks of torment, victims would literally lose their minds, moaning and babbling insanely.]
And his puppeteer, Valerie Jarret
Yep. We could use some more good men like Denzel Washington.
It’s not waterboarding if you use Diesel.
This story was made not really to be about Denzel Washington. He was an excuse to make an article about waterboarding. A method of getting someone to talk that scares the bejesus out of them but rarely if ever caused a perp to die.
That anecdote shows hypocrisy how?
Or the Clintons.
That’s true.
Ed Bradley.
I took my kid to wait outside his trailer when he was filming a couple of blocks from our house. He came out and was super polite and cordial, even though it was a cold night and he had another half block to walk up to the set. We still have his autograph somewhere around the house. Cannot say the same for Tom Hanks when we waited for him. Rude snot.
No, because on the one hand he was snotty about getting $16M per movie but sadly saying that the playing field was not level.
Some of his black brothers in the hood would agree with me.
Because on the one hand he was snotty about getting $16M per movie but sadly saying that the playing field was not level.
Some of his black brothers in the ‘hood would agree with me.
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