Denzel Washington: Don't Blame The Prison System, 'It Starts At The Home'
Options
MR.CJ
Members Posts: 64,689 ✭✭✭✭✭
In “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” Denzel Washington plays an idealistic defense attorney whose beliefs are tested when he joins a new law firm.
The Oscar winner says making the film did not make him more cynical about the justice system and, when asked about the prison-industrial complex, the “Malcolm X” star offered a surprising take.
“It starts at the home,” he told reporters at the film’s downtown New York premiere. “It starts at home.”
When prodded to expand on his answer, the 62-year-old Mount Vernon native replied: “It starts with how you raise your children. If a young man doesn’t have a father figure, he’ll go find a father figure.
“So you know I can’t blame the system,” he continued. “It’s unfortunate that we make such easy work for them.”
Washington came into the project with an insider’s edge on writer-director Dan Gilroy; he spars at the same gym as Jake Gyllenhaal, who starred in Gilroy’s critically acclaimed 2014 film “Nightcrawler,” and the actor gave Washington a full briefing on Gilroy.
“I got to learn a little bit about Dan in advance, and to see the great collaboration they had together,” Washington explained. “So it was easy, it was seamless and it was invigorating.”
(Washington declined to answer questions as to whether he or Gyllenhaal would win in the boxing ring).
The Oscar winner has played a lawyer before (“Philadelphia”), but his reasons for taking on this role weren’t so much because he wanted to return to a courtroom.
“It really didn’t have much to do with that,” he said. “It was just that Dan wrote a good script, a good story, the guy happened to be a lawyer. Law wasn’t the thing that attracted me to the story.”
Roman Israel — a legal savant — is certainly a departure for the actor. Washington told the Daily News that he based the character’s eccentricities on those of a friend’s son who is on the autism spectrum.
“He knew all the laws and everything, so I did a lot of research on Asperger’s, and the spectrum, and went in that direction,” he revealed.
Washington says he is not worrying about what his fans will make of this film.
“I just do what I do,” the “Training Day” star said. “I can’t be concerned. I don’t know what they’re going to think, so that’s not something that comes into my head. . . . If it’s something I’m interested in, then I do it if I can, and we’ll find out what they think about it.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/confidential/denzel-washington-don-blame-prison-system-article-1.3653432
The Oscar winner says making the film did not make him more cynical about the justice system and, when asked about the prison-industrial complex, the “Malcolm X” star offered a surprising take.
“It starts at the home,” he told reporters at the film’s downtown New York premiere. “It starts at home.”
When prodded to expand on his answer, the 62-year-old Mount Vernon native replied: “It starts with how you raise your children. If a young man doesn’t have a father figure, he’ll go find a father figure.
“So you know I can’t blame the system,” he continued. “It’s unfortunate that we make such easy work for them.”
Washington came into the project with an insider’s edge on writer-director Dan Gilroy; he spars at the same gym as Jake Gyllenhaal, who starred in Gilroy’s critically acclaimed 2014 film “Nightcrawler,” and the actor gave Washington a full briefing on Gilroy.
“I got to learn a little bit about Dan in advance, and to see the great collaboration they had together,” Washington explained. “So it was easy, it was seamless and it was invigorating.”
(Washington declined to answer questions as to whether he or Gyllenhaal would win in the boxing ring).
The Oscar winner has played a lawyer before (“Philadelphia”), but his reasons for taking on this role weren’t so much because he wanted to return to a courtroom.
“It really didn’t have much to do with that,” he said. “It was just that Dan wrote a good script, a good story, the guy happened to be a lawyer. Law wasn’t the thing that attracted me to the story.”
Roman Israel — a legal savant — is certainly a departure for the actor. Washington told the Daily News that he based the character’s eccentricities on those of a friend’s son who is on the autism spectrum.
“He knew all the laws and everything, so I did a lot of research on Asperger’s, and the spectrum, and went in that direction,” he revealed.
Washington says he is not worrying about what his fans will make of this film.
“I just do what I do,” the “Training Day” star said. “I can’t be concerned. I don’t know what they’re going to think, so that’s not something that comes into my head. . . . If it’s something I’m interested in, then I do it if I can, and we’ll find out what they think about it.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/confidential/denzel-washington-don-blame-prison-system-article-1.3653432
Comments
-
Uh oh...
-
So who goes first in the racial draft, him or Morgan Freeman?
-
lol Denzel been away from the average experience too long
-
So who goes first in the racial draft, him or Morgan Freeman?
Sam jackson
Morgan
Zel -
So who gon act like Denzel ain't ? now and will claim to never support him again cuz he said one thing you don't like?
-
Matterfact, ? Denzel, I never liked him or his movies anyway
-
Hate it had to be him.
-
" my baby aint do nothing to nobody, well he still got smoked at BeBe s party"
-
Nah ,I mean I'm sure we all get what he's trying to say...I'll give him a pass on this one...For Now
-
I agree with him to a certain extent.
Yeah it starts at what they see, hear, get taught at the crib
But, I know quite a few ? 's who ain't have no father at home, or they old man wasn't really ? , and they doing alright.
-
I’m so over having a meltdown over a lil sound byte from someone’s full interview. I’m over it!
-
Nah, denzel is still that ?
-
He said that yall MAKING IT EASY for a system that target yall by DESTROYING FAMILLIES.
What he says has been said by psychologist and behaviorists for decades : children without fathers are most likely to ? up and end up in jail.
I was most scared by my dad than the police. Most of my friends who didnt ... ended up in jail.
Mothers raise CHILDREN , Fathers raise GROWNUPS.
The father represent the law, the reality, the discipline in a familly. Motherhood is about giving and caring and. Fatherhood is the children wake up call to responsibility for a child.
Hopefully a public figure like Denzel can raise awareness about that -
it's really much there to disown him. he would have to go in to detail.
-
-
smmfh..
i couldnt even find the strength to finish reading that ? so i can only imagine it got worse??!
how old is Denzel?!
he gettin up there.. ? brains begin to go at a certain point. it was only a matter of time.
man but imma stall him out regardless THIS TIME..
i mean i dont care who u are how articulate u are sometimes a simple “no comment.” will suffice.
-
Lmaoooo inb4 yall say fences was ass now
-
FedeRICO_Fellini wrote: »I agree with him to a certain extent.
Yeah it starts at what they see, hear, get taught at the crib
But, I know quite a few ? 's who ain't have no father at home, or they old man wasn't really ? , and they doing alright.
What about THE MAJORITY, those who are not the EXCEPTIONS? -
He is 100% correct and it's time black people admit it
-
He is 100% correct and it's time black people admit it
Both things can be true...obviously everything starts at home, but we don't need to deny systemic racism. -
-
Prisons are for profit, publicly traded companies who's priorities are to make as much profit for their shareholders by having prisons and full as possible, but it's not the prison industrial complex's fault?????
You can say that a good home environment lessens the risk of going to prison without absolving prisons and America of systemic racism.
That ? sounds like some ? pale demons want you to believe so you don't call out their ? . Like it's not the centuries old history of racism or the 13th amendment that America has the highest rate of incarceration of any country, no it's you ? and your degenerate families' fault
I hate these simply ass, pass the buck comments that lack any sociological and historical frameworks. It's insulting to our intelligence
-
atribecalledgabi wrote: »
THAT DESTROYS THE HOME in the first damn place..
white people blow up ? houses and in come this muthafucka WHO PLAYED MALCOLM X talkin bout “well.. if ? didnt have blown up houses theyd be alright..”
d’uh muthafucka! but WHY ARE OUR HOMES BLOWN UP!?! smmfh
my head hurts..
bye yall. bout to eat another plate and take a nap ? ! -
He's right.
-
Not gonna really go into it, but it doesnt start home. Lets say a baby is born today, in 2017. The system has been trying to ? that babies parents and destroy their sense of right of wrong for all of their lives. Now in some cases the system succeeds and in other cases it does not. In a case where it succeeds, the destruction of the baby born in 2017 started way before he or she was born into the "home"
