"Denzel Washington is one of the greatest actors of all time. That phrase is not just the name of a former podcast hosted by W. Kamau Bell and Kevin Avery, but also stands as fact. He's been active as a performer, starting with his stage work, for 50 years, and at age 70 can still open a film and draw box office without slipping into superhero spandex."
"But the peculiar thing with Denzel is that the name of his specific characters often clues the audience in on just what to expect before the two-time Academy Award winner with that confident smile hits the screen. And then he flips those expectations into something spectacular. (In latest Spike Lee joynt Highest 2 Lowest, their fifth collaboration, his name David King tips us off immediately to his ranking in the music business-and its precariousness.)"
Denzel Washington has a fifty-year performing career that continues to draw box office appeal at age seventy. Character names in his films often signal audience expectations that he then upends through transformative performances. His fifth collaboration with Spike Lee, Highest 2 Lowest, features a character named David King whose name signals a precarious position in the music industry. The 1990 Spike Lee film introduces questions about Black art and ownership through Bleek Gilliam, a working musician who loses music and discovers relational love, scored by Branford Marsalis and Terence Blanchard with cinematography by Earnest Dickerson. Devil in a Blue Dress presents Washington as Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins in a beloved noir mystery.
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