Is Denzel Washington hinting at retiring from filmmaking?
The Oscar-winning actor and director, 69, indicated there are “very few films” that pique his interest in an interview with Empire Magazine about starring in Ridley Scott’s upcoming Gladiator II.
“There are very few films left for me to make that I’m interested in, and I have to be inspired by the filmmaker, and I was tremendously inspired by Ridley,” Washington told the publication.
Scott, 86, “had a great go-round the first go-round” with Washington as a collaborator filming 2007’s American Gangster, he continued. The British writer-director is “excited about life and his next film. He’s an inspiration,” added Washington. “We should all want to feel like that at 86.”
Joining Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal and Connie Nielsen in Gladiator II, Washington plays Macrinus, a wealthy arms dealer who “wants to be Emperor and he’s willing to do anything to get there,” he told Empire. The new movie is the long-awaited sequel to Scott’s 2000 Oscar Best Picture winner Gladiator, which starred Russell Crowe.
As for the amount of “films left” for Washington to be inspired by, the actor has not publicly discussed retirement. Along with Gladiator II, his upcoming films include crime thriller High and Low and an untitled project reuniting him with Training Day and The Equalizer director Antoine Fuqua. In spring 2025, he’ll be back on Broadway for the sixth time, joining Jake Gyllenhaal in a production of William Shakespeare’s Othello.
As of 2021’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, Washington has 10 Oscar nominations to his name, with two wins, for 1989’s Glory and 2001’s Training Day. The director of four feature films, he has also produced dozens, including the August Wilson screen adaptations Fences, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and the upcoming The Piano Lesson, which stars his son John David Washington and is directed by his other son, Malcolm Washington.
Scott, speaking to Vanity Fair in July, described Washington’s Gladiator II character as “pretty f—ing cruel” to those fighting for their lives in Rome’s Colosseum.
The sequel, he told PEOPLE on the red carpet for Alien: Romulus on Aug. 12, is “as good as the first one.” The filmmaker added, “I didn’t say better. It’s as good.”
Gladiator II, from Paramount Pictures, will be in theaters Nov. 22.
