John David Washington Quotes
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The injury that ended my time in football turned out to be serendipitous. I tore my Achilles while training for a pending tryout with the New York Giants, and when it snapped, so did my career, basically. That's what led me to gain the confidence to get into the acting world on my own terms.
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I got introduced to Shakespeare at four years old, and I fell in love with the language.
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I think, culturally, stories are important, whether it be cinema, whether it be by word of mouth - which I don't even know if we do anymore, as it all seems to be social media.
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Football helped me with confidence that I needed. It gave me a sense of independence and earning my own money and my own keep. That's what it served. It gave me the strength to be able to deal with rejection, politics, hard work, and being introduced to pain and embracing what's uncomfortable.
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Reinaldo Marcus Green - I'm so blessed an honored to have worked with him.
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My mother is very positive and encouraging and nurturing, as a mother should be. She's my auditioning partner. She says when it's not good enough; she says when I'm ready.
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They were very supportive parents in all my endeavors. They have very different approaches on how they give advice.
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I got a scholarship, so I was getting my independence and not paying for school. And then here comes the NFL. 'Now you got an opportunity to get drafted? Guess we'll do that.' I did, all right.
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Every time I was off school, I was in Carolina with my cousins. So it was a big influence on me. I actually experienced straight-up racism out there, too.
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Football players are creative when they're in the moment.
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I've met Caucasians who are racist, but I've also heard black people say racist things.
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Football is the ultimate team sport. You're dependent on 10 other people on the field to have success on a particular play to get to the common goal, which is the win. On a set, we need everybody doing their job and pulling their weight.
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I've failed a lot, you know, in football, and I've gone on a lot of auditions, been told no, been told I'm not right, so I know what failure feels like. It's about the work.
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Movies are magical. It transcends a lot of hate or human faults in real life because of the fantasy of it all.
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It's a beautiful thing when you serve the team.
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As my father started ascending in the business, people around me started to treat me different. Our lives changed. So that anxiety, that sort of resentment, I just funneled it through football.
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Hate is a problem.
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So many people - DPs, writers, and the assistants that go on to be directors and writers - come from the School of Spike Lee. He's almost set up an Institution of Spike Lee.
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There's men and women out there protecting and serving, doing it the right way, that aren't talked about.
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I knew every one of my father's lines in 'Glory' - I broke the VHS tape - but I hid my love of acting to make it as my own man.
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On a Spike Lee set, everybody seems to want to be there and is motivated to work in unison and do the best they can.
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I went to a historically black college.
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I've had the acting bug since I was, like, five. But growing up, I saw how people treated me differently when they knew who my father was, even the stuff I did on the field. Sometimes I'd rush for 100 yards, and the headline would be, 'Denzel's son runs for 100 yards.' That's where the suppression of that bug came from.
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I had a father who was active, present. There are people out there that never knew their fathers, didn't have their father's support. If I were to complain, that would be real sad. How dare I?