Denzel Washington
Academy Award winning actor Denzel Washington likes to play a man with a plan. From his long ago take on Steve Biko in Cry Freedom to his driven Coach Herman Boone in Remember the Titans, all the way to his latest role playing Eli, a mysterious loner protecting the Good Book in The Book of Eli, Washington knows how to craft powerful characters with singular intent.
In The Book of Eli, Washington dips his boot into the current post-apocalyptic trend playing a character traversing the ruins of our nation 30 years after a nuclear holocaust. Humans are almost feral, creature comforts are to be treasured like gold and books, especially Eli’s last copy of the King James Bible, are just about extinct. It’s in a vision from God that Eli is charged with protecting the tome, taking it west where it may become the saving grace of humanity. Along the way, cannibals, a corrupt power lord and all manner of thugs try to end Eli’s mission from God.
From the Albuquerque set of the film last spring, Washington talked to us about bringing Eli’s dangerous journey to life…
Q. Are the physical aspects of Eli the most intense of any film you have done?
Denzel Washington: No, I did a boxing movie called The Hurricane and that was equally difficult. Although I only boxed one guy at a time and in this there was one scene where I fight six guys and another one where I fight 16 guys and we shot it all in one shot. I’m fortunate to work with some of the top stunt fighting guys like Jeff Amato…who was a disciple of Danny Inosanto. I was also able to bring my boxing skills to the martial arts swordplay skills.
Q. Eli has a Sergio Leone-esque loner vibe about him. Did you use his films as a reference point?
Washington: Not actively. I didn’t watch a bunch of Leone movies. But he is a loner and there is a classic western-meets-karate sword movie aspect to it. I didn’t research them though. But I think that Eli’s personal journey is to learn to deal with people again. He’s been given this job to protect this book but his final test is to be with people.
Q. As a producer, did you do a lot of work to develop Eli on your own?
Washington: Being that I was in on the process early and I’m also a producer, [directors] Allen and Albert (Hughes) and I went through several months where we worked on the material. I would play all the parts and read them out loud so we could tweak the material.
Q. How was it working with dual directors, Allen and Albert Hughes?
Washington: It’s interesting how the two of them work together. Albert is sort of the, I dunno if you would call him a geek, but he’s a visual guy and knows everything there is about every kind of camera, like the Red Cameras we used. Albert really knows what he wants and is the shot maker. Allen is more of the actor/director communicator. I have never worked with two brothers before but they seem to know how to work well together and get twice as much done. I was really impressed by their preparation and the way they storyboard and the effects. It’s not a world I know as much about but they were really on the case. It looks great and different.
Q. According to the film, the apocalypse happened when Eli was a teen. What has he been up to for the last 30 years and how did he come to get the book?
Washington: When I was researching online, I ran across this kid named Ben Underwood. I don’t know if you’ve heard about this kid, in fact he just passed away, but he had no eyes. He developed this sonic clicking sound. YouTube him and there are some great specials about him and what he was able to do. I used his birthday to figure out my character, so [Eli] was 17 and working in a Wal-Mart or K-Mart. As the story goes, everyone had to stay inside for the first year after the war and then he got out and wandered and survived. He heard a voice that led him to the book and why. When exactly he got it…in July. (Laughs) If it’s been 30 years, I would say he got it after the first two or three years.
Q. Eli’s got the book, but what else defines him physically?
Washington: He travels light, so he stops at survival stores and picks up things here and there. Not that it means anything, I never wore underwear. (Laughs) He didn’t have any; he wore them out. We did cute things like the sneakers he starts off in that are all taped up are actually the latest LeBron James sneakers. He’s a survivalist so he doesn’t have a second set of clothes. I was gonna go with a bald look. I was growing this hair and we looked at it. Because he and Carnegie (Gary Oldman)…are considered some of the oldest people left I felt it was important to have all the grey. I can’t grow a good beard but we had it all filled in and looking grey, yet he’s physically fit. He’s a survivor.
Q. There’s such an intense rivalry between Eli and Gary Oldman’s Carnegie. How did you shape that – by rehearsing or keeping your distance on set?
Washington: We didn’t rehearse a lot. We got together a couple times for lunch before we started working. Gary is a great actor and knows what he is doing. He’s real meticulous with clothes and looks and accents. He and I talked a bit but there’s something to be said for us not wanting to get too close because we are two strangers that come together in the story. It’s an adversarial relationship between the characters so we knew that so we talked but we didn’t want to beat up the material too much. We just got in there and saw what happened.
Q. Does Eli’s story play as an allegory?
Washington: We are all in search of something, a higher power or the meaning of life. I know I was in my 20s dabbling in Eastern philosophies, yoga and Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. I touched them all trying to figure out the meaning of life, or if nothing else, to figure myself out. I think there is a thirst for that. But as a classic battle between God and the Devil, or even more specifically for the character of Eli, he is five days walk from the Promised Land if you will, taking this book where it belongs and literally all hell breaks loose. I think it’s a metaphor for life. I like the idea of the spiritual journey this old man takes.
Tara Bennett is the East Coast Editor for SFX Magazine, lead writer for Lost Magazine and a regular contributor to SciFi Magazine, SciFiWire.com, and Newsarama.com. She is also the author of the film books 300: The Art of the Film, The Art of Terminator Salvation and The Making of Terminator Salvation.
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