When you’re acting against a titan like Denzel Washington, it can be hard to think about the scene sometimes. Or at least it was for Josh Brolin while on set of “American Gangster.” In Ridley Scott’s 2007 crime epic Brolin played a corrupt cop who tries to keep Washington’s Harlem drug kingpin Frank Lucas in his place, not often to great success. In a recent interview on “In Depth with Graham Bensinger,” Brolin reflected on performing opposite Washington and how things became so intense the two nearly ended up in a scrap.
“We almost got into a fight,” said Brolin. “There was a moment where Brian Grazer was going around with his hair standing straight up and I had done some scenes with Russell Crowe and he was like ‘Josh and Russell are amazing, Josh and Russell are amazing,’ I’m sure Denzel got wind to that.”
Brolin wasn’t thinking about Washington’s feelings as he went into a scene with him though, but instead, holding back his excitement over working with such a legend. However, Brolin knew something was off the second Washington arrived.
“He was a little late to set and there was a whole thing there and then he showed me the lines and he didn’t change any of my lines, but he kind of changed the structure of it,” Brolin said. “He said, ‘I think I’m going to put this down here and I put that up there,’ but he wouldn’t really look at me.”
After rehearsing, Brolin tried to maintain the confidence his character called for, but struggled to do so opposite Washington.
“I forgot a line and I put my hand on his shoulder and I said, ‘What’s the line?’ And he hit my hand off and he said, ‘Don’t ever put your fucking hand on me,’ and I was like holy shit, I’m going to scrap with Denzel Washington,” said Brolin to Graham Bensinger. “This is crazy.”
In that moment, Brolin shared he and Washington were “not actors anymore.” He recognizes now that Washington was “just doing his job” and trying to stay in character, but didn’t realize that at the time. Eventually they got through it without injuring one another and now Brolin and his former co-star “get along very well.” Since then, Brolin has come to understand this as a common occurrence and recognizes the real wrongdoing was on him for misinterpreting the situation.
“I’ve heard that story now, not that particular, but I’ve heard that story about Robert Duvall who I’ve known for a long time and I’ve heard that story on set from a lot of different actors now,” he said. “I get it too now, it’s like, if somebody’s coming up to you and seeing Denzel Washington or seeing Robert Duvall and you’re an actor who’s just kind of starting out, you just want to have an experience with that person.”
Watch Brolin’s full interview below.
