Denzel Washington Had No Idea That His Son Was Going To Be An Actor Until He Landed His Big HBO Break

As viral TMZ footage of Denzel Washington helping a homeless man during a police encounter continues to circulate, it’s worth noting another Denzel connection as highlighted in an Esquire profile of his son, John David Washington. That article’s part of the lead up to the (still planned) July release of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, and we’ve already discussed how the Inception director decided to cast the younger Washington while attending the world premiere of Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. Yet the Denzel portion of the profile is really something as well.

Prior to Lee’s film, John David had appeared within few roles, but as it turns out, Denzel was the last immediate family member to be aware of his son’s acting aspirations (given his football leanings) until he landed a role on HBO’s Ballers. John David told Esquire that his mother had driven him to an audition, since he was medicated after a surgery to repair his Achilles tendon — an injury that effectively ended his athletic career. The pair kept the audition situation under wraps from dad, who was in “disbelief” when John David shared the wonderful news:

“There was disbelief,” Washington says. The reaction couldn’t have been further from that celebration when he was signed by the NFL years earlier. His dad “kept asking questions like ‘For HBO? Like Home Box Office Entertainment? Who? Really? But what’s it called? The Rock?’ He just kept asking questions like ‘Is this real?’ I guess he had to check it with his agents to make sure it was real.”

Nothing like a vote of confidence from dad, even if it took a little while for Denzel to realize this was really happening, right? Still, John David explained that Denzel was quite pleased before insisting that some formal acting classes would soon be in order. Well, everything appears to have worked out for the better for all involved, and John David Washington will soon be seen in one of the only blockbusters still scheduled for summer 2020. Tenet will land in theaters on July 17.

(Via Esquire)

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