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In 1978, Denzel Washington got a rude awakening about what it means to be an actor: “It was a good lesson”
In 1978 or 1979, while filming the television drama *Flesh and Blood* inside Chicago’s Cook County Jail, Denzel Washington was preparing to play a convict when a prisoner challenged his approach. The man pointed out that although he had been angry when convicted, he would not spend every day in prison acting angry; Washington later called the exchange a valuable lesson in how actors can lighten the emotional weight they carry.
The sports drama followed a jailed man who takes up boxing and is encouraged to turn professional after release. Washington, then 24, appeared alongside actor and filmmaker John Cassavetes; he went on to a major role in *St. Elsewhere* and won an Academy Award for *Glory* in 1989. The anecdote offers an early glimpse of how experience and observation shaped his approach to acting.
In short
- A prisoner’s perspective changed how Washington thought about playing a convict.
- The exchange took place during filming at Cook County Jail.
- Washington was 24 and early in his acting career.
Explained simply
Flesh and Blood was a television drama about a man in prison who takes up boxing and is encouraged to become a professional after his release. Denzel Washington, then 24, played a convict while filming scenes inside Chicago’s Cook County Jail, alongside actor and filmmaker John Cassavetes.
Washington later said a prisoner’s comments helped him understand that playing a character’s anger did not mean carrying that emotion all the time. The experience came early in his career, before his role in the television series St. Elsewhere and his Academy Award for the film Glory in 1989.