Elvis Mitchell, on his radio show “The Treatment” last week, interviewed Denzel Washington. Especially interesting is their discussion of the development of the “Great Debaters” script. Denzel explains why he toned down “the racist stuff.” And he describes how the story was improved by Horton Foote, the two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter.Click here to hear a 2-minute excerpt of that interview on my Vox site.
To stream the entire half-hour program, follow this link to kcrw.com. Or you can download it from iTunes as a free podcast.
By the way (and this is slightly off topic, for which I apologize), did you happen to catch Denzel on Letterman last week? The guest who followed him was Don Rickles, and for the first time I can recall, the lead guest (Washington) stayed out for the second. Rickles played off the two of them perfectly, and Washington was nearly breathless with laughter during the entire "performance." Watching it live, I was thinking of your Rickles post from a few weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteIndeed I caught that, Jeff. It was a blast! Rickles was breaking Denzel's balls that night... and Denzel seemed thrilled.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Denzel directing film, am I the only one who thought Antwone Fisher was really underrated? I thought it was a pretty nice depiction of therapy. And it had Salli Richardson!
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