The Lost Roles of Denzel Washington

While promoting his latest film, Flight, Denzel Washington revealed to GQ a few roles he let slip away throughout his long career. It’s always interesting to play the alternate reality game with Hollywood’s finest and in this instance Denzel states that the David Fincher thriller, Seven as well as Tony Gilroy’s directorial debut, Michael Clayton were the ones that got away. After he passed on the films, the roles went to Brad Pitt and George Clooney respectively. Those are some pretty decent fallbacks if you ask me. Denzel also goes on to say that he sought roles in Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. But why stop there? We cast Denzel in this year’s biggest movies to see how things would have gone.

The Avengers

We offer Denzel the roles of both Tony Stark and Nick Fury. He turns them down to play The Hulk. The world is treated to the most unique portrayal of Dr. Bruce Banner we’ve ever seen. The Hulk no longer growls, he just laughs coolly while strolling through the New York City war zone. “Huh Ha! Hulk gonna smash ya!”

The Dark Knight Rises

Due to scheduling conflicts Denzel has to turn down the Batman role, but he is able to play Alfred. When director Chris Nolan tells Denzel to inspire Bruce Wayne, he misunderstands and busts out his speech from Remember the Titans.

“This is where they fought the battle of Gettysburg. Fifty thousand men died right here on this field, fighting the same fight that we are still fighting among ourselves today.”

After a long explanation about Gotham’s location in the fictional US and who the villain is, the scenes get cut from the film.

The Hunger Games

Denzel plays Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta’s mentor and past winner of the games. While insisting on going method for the role, it turns out Denzel gets giggly when drunk and spends the whole time claiming he won the Hunger Games by building a room behind a wall and robbing a bank, a story which is very similar to his film, The Inside Man.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Taking on the role of Dr. Connors/The Lizard, it turns out Denzel does a great job and the crowds rejoice. Imagine that.

I guess Denzel doesn’t need our help. Flight opens November 2nd. The full GQ interview can be read here.