“The tragedy of Macbeth”: the film can be seen on the Apple TV platform. (AppleTV)
Denzel Washington He has been part of the Hollywood industry for decades. His voice and his smile, added to his great talent, led him to play various roles in which he always knew how to move with great ease. He participated in comedies, dramas, action and war movies. It seems that if we have Washington in a film, nothing can go wrong. He now he has just undertaken a new challenge: join a new adaptation of the work of William Shakespeare, Macbeth. under the title of The Tragedy of Macbethfor Apple TV+, Denzel reported to Joel Coenswho writes and directs this fiction.
The core story of Macbeth tells of the ambition of a Scottish lord who is influenced by three witches. They convince him that he can become King of Scotland. This version of Coen was filmed in black and white.
This is the first time Joel has directed without his brother Ethan, with whom he regularly works side by side. “Ethan didn’t want to do movies anymore. He seems to be happy with what he just did. They both have tons of unproduced scripts on the shelves, but I don’t know what Joel will do without him.” Carter Burwella composer who has accompanied the Coen from Many years ago.
Washington plays the protagonist of this work, Macbeth, and with it he achieved a new Oscar nomination (he already has 10 to his credit), and will try to add a third statuette to the two he has already won. He won the first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for glory (times of glory1989), and the second by Training Day (2001) as the lead actor.
In this film he is accompanied in the cast by Frances McDormand (who is also a producer on the film), Bertie Carvel, Alex Hassell, Corey Hawkins, Harry Melling and Brendan Gleeson.
In communication with Infobae, Denzel spoke about this new nomination and the advice he would give new actors.
How important is it for you to be back at the Oscars, after so many nominations?
-I have been lucky enough to be nominated 10 times, now including the Best Picture nomination. I’ve seen it all, I’ve seen all the ways these shows can go. And it’s simple: you just go and try to have a good time. That’s it.
–When you won your second Oscar you gave a speech talking about following in the footsteps of the great Sidney Poitier, and today, with your tenth nomination, you are the African-American with the most nominations. What’s it like to be someone that people look at the same way they maybe look at Sidney?
I’ve been watching your movies a lot lately, especially the last 2 years with the Covid. But I don’t know if I see myself like him, I don’t consider myself like that. I’m just trying to share what I know from my experiences. In this movie I talked a lot with Corey (Hawkins) and Alex (Hassell) and I can see myself in them, as that “younger me”. I just share what I know and my role is just to share what I’ve learned and be there to answer questions about it.
One of your great movies was glory, for which you won an Oscar. If you could give that young Denzel who is just starting out in the industry one piece of advice, what would it be?
-What I would say is what I actually did, that is, you learn to act on stage (in theater), not in the movies. That’s what I tell young actors now, get on stage, that’s where you learn to act. Movies are a director’s medium, theater is an actors’ medium, so you can’t really learn, IMHO. If you look at the list of award winners in recent years, and I’m lucky enough to be one of them, almost all of them have had theater experience.
At this particular moment, what are you looking for in your career? How do you decide to play a role or not?
Right now what I want is to lose 40 pounds, so when they see me in Italy, because we’ll be filming Equalizer 3, visiting Naples, Positano, and some other places, I will have a big challenge ahead of me (laughs). But there is a saying that goes: “Without commitment you will never start, without perseverance you will never finish”, so I am interested in being constant in mind, body and spirit for the rest of my days.
What was it like to compose this new version of Macbeth?
-I had never played Macbeth. It took me a year to meet with Joel (Coen) to get a vision for him, what they had in mind to achieve my performance. You have to meet William Shakespeare, you have to get to his level, we all did, he is the standard that we try to approach. So I think when you approach it like that, with the proper humility, determination and hard work, then you are completely fulfilled. It filled me up a lot when I started reading Shakespeare in college. Now it filled me even more because I never felt good about what I did. It’s just that there’s always more you could do or another way of looking at it. I want to come back more than any other role I’ve played.
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