Josh Brolin claims he nearly “got into a fight” with Denzel Washington on ‘American Gangster’ set
"I was like, ‘Holy shit, I’m gonna scrap with Denzel Washington, this is crazy'"
by Max Pilley · NMEJosh Brolin has revealed that he almost came to blows with Denzel Washington on the set of American Gangster.
The actor, known for playing Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as his appearances in Dune and No Country For Old Men, discussed the incident during an appearance on the In Depth With Graham Bensinger podcast, where he was promoting his new memoir From Under The Truck.
Brolin played Detective Trupo in Ridley Scott’s 2007 crime drama, with Washington portraying the notorious drug kingpin Frank Lucas. It was while shooting a rare scene together that Brolin revealed that they “almost got into a fight”.
“Denzel was a little late to set and there was a whole thing there,” he explained. “And then he showed me the lines…he didn’t change any of my lines, but he kind of changed the structure of it. He said, ‘I think I’m gonna put this down here and I’m gonna put that up there.’ But he wouldn’t really look at me.”
“I was trying to remember the structure, and then we rehearsed,” he continued. “It wasn’t that many lines, mostly mine. And I’m supposed to be super confident. It’s Denzel Washington, man. It’s, like, not easy – you’re just some actor who they’re trying out, seeing if he’s the real thing or not. And I forgot a line.”
Brolin said he asked Washington for a prompt while putting his hand on the actor’s shoulder.
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“And he hit my hand off and he said, ‘Don’t ever fucking put your hand on me,’” Brolin remembered. “And I was like, ‘Holy shit, I’m gonna scrap with Denzel Washington. This is crazy.’ We’re not actors anymore — at least in my mind. In his mind, he was just doing his job. He was that guy. He was Frank Lucas, period. But I didn’t know. And then we got through that moment. I said, ‘Are you OK?’ He said, ‘Yeah. You?’ I said, ‘Yeah. Can I get my line?’ He said, ‘Go for it.’ It’s like he’d said what he needed to say.”
Brolin clarified that he “gets along very well” with Washington now, although American Gangster remains the only film they have appeared in together.
Washington, meanwhile, has reunited with Ridley Scott for Gladiator 2, which is in cinemas now. In a three-star review of the long-awaited sequel, NME wrote: “If you loved Gladiator, it’s odds-on you’ll enjoy this too. It’s got all of the same exciting bits – swordfighting, rousing speeches, nasty poshos getting what they deserve. The problem is that’s all it gives you.”
“You want to feel like you’re watching Maximus lift off his helmet and deliver that iconic monologue for the first time again. You want the thrill of a core memory being unlocked. You want to know you’ll be quoting Mescal’s lines to your mates in the pub for the next 10 years. Gladiator 2, piously respectful as it is, can only offer a faded memory of that experience. There was a dream that was Rome – and this is kind of it.”
Washington made headlines recently by claiming that a same-sex kiss got cut from the film. “I kissed a guy full on the lips and they, I guess they weren’t ready for that yet,” he said. Scott has described the claim as “bullshit”.