Denzel Washington: stars as Brutus on Broadway's 'Julius Caesar'

Jet, April 11, 2005

Two-time Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington returns to his first love this week--the theatrical stage--in the new Broadway drama, Julius Caesar.

He stars as the heroic and noble Brutus, who is tormented over the choice between loyalty to his country and loyalty to his friend in a modern-day adaptation of the Shakespearean drama.

Julius Caesar opens April 3 at the Belasco Theatre in New York for a limited engagement through June 12. The highly anticipated play, which was in previews at JET press time, is selling out briskly.

Washington calls his return to the stage a "homecoming."

He told Ed Gordon on "News & Notes with Ed Gordon" on NPR: "Coming back to the stage now at this point in my life, I feel that the timing is right. It's almost like retooling, you know, going back to the fundamentals, and it's also kind of a thank you note to the people who've been very good to me over the years. Because you make movies and you're there with the crew and then you do interviews and I really don't see the people that much. So this way, you get to feel them and I go out and sign autographs afterwards and all that."

He also described his return during a WOR radio interview with Joan Hamburg: "It's a homecoming. I started acting in the theater in college at Fordham University at Lincoln Center 30 years ago this year ... So it's just great being home. It's exciting."

He says theatergoers should have no problem understanding the Shakespearean drama. "It's not a difficult play to understand. This guy wants to be king, we want to get rid of him, and we don't have an exit strategy," he laughs on "News & Notes with Ed Gordon."

The play is directed by Tony Award-winner Daniel Sullivan and produced by Carole Shorenstein Hays and Freddy DeMann.

Washington leads a 30-member cast who includes Colm Feore as Brutus' co-conspirator, Cassius; Jessica Hecht as Brutus' wife, Portia; William Sadler as Julius Caesar; Tamara Tunie as Caesar's wife, Calpurnia; Eamonn Walker as Marc Antony and Jack Willis as Casca.

Washington made his theatrical debut in the Fordham University production of Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones. In 1979, he appeared in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Coriolanus and worked with the New Federal Theater and Negro Ensemble Company.

Though moviegoers are familiar with his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Malcolm X in Spike Lee's epic in 1992, he first played Malcolm X on stage in a New Federal Theatre production of When The Chicken Comes Home To Roost in 1981. He also starred in the 1981 Negro Ensemble Theater drama A Soldier's Play and later reprised his role in the movie A Soldier's Story in 1984. He made his Broadway debut in Ron Milner's Checkmates in 1987.

His performance is a fitting homecoming role for Washington who is the first Black actor to win two Academy Awards: Best Actor for Training Day (2001) and Best Supporting Actor for Glory (1989).

He admits that Brutus is a complicated character. "I'm still learning about him. It's sort of a journey. I'm always looking for the spiritual angle and here's a man right at the top who's affected by a soothsayer. And he's talking about the gods. 'Oh ye god,' he says 'by the gods' more than anybody in the whole play.... In the beginning (he's) giving money to a soothsayer and at the end they're saying, 'Hey, he meditates,' so I kind of look at his arc; he tried to control things with his mind. And ultimately he destroys himself."

Washington is enjoying feeling the audience's reaction while he's on stage, something he cannot get from making films. "It's different. It's spontaneous.... I walk out at the end and people applaud, and maybe they're just being nice to me. Whatever it is, I'll take it. But you don't get that in film.... you don't get the layman's opinion immediately ...," he told "News and Notes with Ed Gordon" on NPR.

He admits that he has a grueling schedule on days he has two shows. "It's taxing, but I feel pretty good right now. We did two shows yesterday. We haven't had a day off in about 12 days. I haven't had a day off in about 21 because I flew home in between to work on a script I'm directing. But I get my rest, and drink my water, so I'm OK," he explained on Gordon's radio show.

He appreciates the support from his fans who embraced him as a theatrical actor, stayed with him when he made the transition to TV on "St. Elsewhere" and have seen all of his movies. And he is humbled by his acceptance as an consummate actor.

"It affords me the opportunity to speak, to preach, if you will, through my work," he said on the radio show. "But, you know, it's important for me, especially now in my life, to share with other people and help them to understand that these are gifts from God that we all have. This is what I've been blessed with. And I want people to know and understand that what they see that they may want--the fame, the fortune and all those things--are nothing without, first, of all, the grace of God and the gift of God. And that you have to use whatever gifts you have, and whatever arena you're in, to do God's work, to do good work. That's what I'm here for."