Denzel Washington, the two-time Academy Award-winning actor, wants American voters to realize the pervasive manipulation coming from both sides of the political spectrum. While promoting his latest film, “Gladiator II,” in London, Washington shared his candid thoughts on politics during an interview with The Sunday Times.
Reflecting on a line from “Gladiator II”—“Empires fall, so do emperors”—Washington connected the film’s themes to the current state of American politics. “You know, it’s so easy to stand outside America and say this and that,” he said. “Turn around, you know? Pick a country. Any one.”
For Washington, the issue isn’t confined to any one political party. Instead, he pointed to a larger systemic problem where promises remain unfulfilled. “It’s all politics. All promises unkept,” he stated. “And now with the information age the way it is — if anything — left, right, whatever had better learn how to use those tools to manipulate the people. There was a great line in the first movie I did, [1981’s] ‘Carbon Copy’: ‘Power to the people? Yeah, they had it once — it was called the Stone Age.’”
Washington, who has starred in such films as “Malcolm X,” “The Equalizer” franchise, “Fences,” “The Hurricane,” “Training Day,” that the age of digital media has only heightened the vulnerability of the public to manipulation. “We’re all slaves to information now. We really are. We’re all slaves,” he noted. “So whatever you feel about the leaders, like this guy’s crazy or the other one is sane, you’d better realize you’re being manipulated by both sides. Period.”
Washington solution to the frustration people might be feeling? “Yeah. So go to the movies.”
The actor portrays the scheming political figure Macrinus in “Gladiator II,” a sequel directed by Ridley Scott and starring Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Pedro Pascal, Fred Hechinger, and Connie Nielsen, Deadline reported.
“Gladiator II,” a follow-up to Scott’s 2000 epic, opens nationwide on Nov. 22.
