Denzel Washington is determined to get Ridley Scott his long “overdue” Oscar.
Washington, who reunites with Scott for “Gladiator II” almost 20 years after 2007’s “American Gangster,” told The Hollywood Reporter that Scott not having won Best Director is almost criminal.
“Ridley is overdue,” Washington said. “How can he not have won an Oscar? That doesn’t even make sense. I don’t believe it, actually.”
Scott’s original 2000 “Gladiator” won Best Picture, with star Russell Crowe winning Best Actor. Scott was up for Best Director, having been nominated in the category previously with “Thelma & Louise” and again with “Black Hawk Down.” Scott has won BAFTA Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and Primetime Emmy Awards, just not an Academy Award yet.
And Washington is ready to make 2025 Scott’s year.
Washington said to “BBC Radio 1” that Scott not having an Oscar is proof that the Academy can’t do their “job” recognizing talent.
“Would you tell somebody how can this man not have an Academy Award? Do your job,” he said. “I mean seriously, though…. Believe me, and I’m not talking out a turn, he doesn’t give a…He’s got them lined up like planes over Cleveland, and he’s excited about it, and he knows what he’s going to do next. I mean, I want to be him when I grow up.”
Washington later told Esquire that after his own Oscar losses for “The Hurricane” and “Malcolm X,” he asked his wife Pauletta Washington to start voting in his place for the Academy Awards.
“I went through a time then when [my wife] Pauletta would watch all the Oscar movies — I told her, I don’t care about that,” he said. “‘They don’t care about me? I don’t care. You vote. You watch them. I ain’t watching that.’ I gave up. I got bitter. My pity party.”
Washington went on to win for “Training Day,” and has landed four more Oscar nominations since.
At least Washington and Scott share that sentiment towards the Academy: Scott told The New Yorker in 2023 that if he ever wins an Oscar, he would say, “About feckin’ time!”
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