Josh Brolin reflects on tense moment with Denzel Washington

Josh Brolin is keeping his stance clear about the heated moment with Denzel Washington.

The actor recalled a quarrel between him and Washington on the sets of 2007 hit, American Gangster, in which he played Detective Trupo, who is investigating Washington’s character Frank Lucas, a Harlem drug dealer in the ’60s and ’70s.

“Denzel and I, by the way, get along very well now,” he said during an interview with In Depth with Graham Bensingerb. “We almost got into a fight.”

While filming, this tense moment changed Brolin’s line for a scene at the last minute.

“Denzel was a little late to set and there was a whole thing there,” Brolin said. “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.”

“So I was trying to remember the structure, and then we rehearsed. It wasn’t that many lines, mostly mine. And I’m supposed to be super confident,” Brolin said. “It’s Denzel Washington, man. It’s, like, not easy. You’re just this actor who they’re trying out, seeing if he’s the real thing or not. And I forgot a line.”

“And I put my hand on his shoulder and I said, ‘What’s the line?’ and he hits my hand off and he said, ‘Don’t ever fucking put your hand on me,’ ” Brolin alleged. 

“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.”

The Dune: Part Two actor elucidated that it seemed Washington was embracing his character while on set: “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 okay?’ 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.”

However, this heated moment didn’t change anything between the two and he and Washington saw each other at an event to which Washington greeted him warmly.