After Will Smith and Chris Rock got into a, well, unscripted moment on stage at the Oscars, Smith had some time before being invited back to the stage for a more salubrious moment. And during that break between the now famous slap and being awarded the Academy Award for Best Actor, Smith talked with a man who knows from Academy Awards, Oscar-winner Denzel Washington.
Smith revealed to the crowd exactly what Washington told him, and what’s so wild is the idea that Denzel Washington talks in real life just like his characters talk in the movies — words full of wisdom and foreboding and lurking menace, like those of God.
“Denzel said to me a few minutes ago,” Smith said, in accepting his honor, “at your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you.” And here you thought Washington was just reading scripts all this time! No, he’s got this material in the bank, no help needed.
Anybody who’s heard Washington’s warning baritone in a film knows the timbre Smith heard, and Washington knows his devils: he’s always either battling them or being a version of one on screen. You just know he sounded the same with Smith as he did when he uttered these lines below.
“There are two kinds of pain in this world. The pain that hurts, the pain that alters.” The Equalizer
“If we don’t come together right now on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed, just like they were. I don’t care if you like each other of not, but you will respect each other.” Remember The Titans
“How do you want it, dog? Closed casket? Remember that fool in the wheelchair? How do you think he got there?” Training Day
“You practice anything a long time, you get good at it. You tell a hundred lies a day, it sounds like the truth. Everyone betrays everyone.” Safe House
“People do bad things; if you’re lucky, you get a chance to set it right, but most of the time it goes unpunished. This ain’t one of them times.” The Equalizer
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