Legendary actor explains why he “gave up” on the Oscars

As it turns out, even the greats occasionally get down on themselves. For the incomparable Denzel Washington, it happened when when he lost the Academy Award for best actor to Kevin Spacey in 2000.
Washington, 69, spoke about his feelings in an extensive interview with Esquire that was released Tuesday.He won the Oscar for best supporting actor in 1990′s “Glory” and earned a best actor nomination for his portrayal of Rubin Carter in 1999′s “The Hurricane” — the true story of the New Jersey native and middleweight boxer wrongfully convicted of murder.
Washington went up against Spacey, who was nominated for his role as the midlife crisis-suffering Lester Burnham in ″American Beauty.” The actor recalled hearing Spacey’s name as the winner and how devastating that felt.
“I don’t want to sound like, ‘Oh, he won my Oscar,’ or anything like that,” Washington told Esquire. “It wasn’t like that.”
Washington had previously received a best actor nomination for the titular role in 1993’s “Malcolm X,” but lost that award to Al Pacino for “Scent of a Woman.” But Washington was so angry after losing to Spacey that he told his wife he would avoid watching Oscar nominees entirely.
“I went through a time then when (my wife) Pauletta (Washington) would watch all the Oscar movies — I told her, I don’t care about that,” Washington said. “Hey: ‘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. So I’ll tell you, for about fifteen years, from 1999 to 2014, when I put the beverage down, I was bitter.”
Two years after his loss, Washington would win his first best actor award in 2002 for “Training Day.” Afterward, he would receive four additional best actor nominations for “Flight,” “Fences,” “Roman J. Israel, Esq.,” and “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” He’ll next star in “Gladiator II,” the sequel to 2000′s Oscar-winning “Gladiator.” That latest film comes to theaters on Nov. 22.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Murjani Rawls may be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @MurjaniRawls.