Denzel Washington became “bitter” and stop voting for the Academy Awards after losing the Superb Actor Oscar to Kevin Spacey.
The Gladiator II actor printed to Esquire that he did no longer steal it well when Spacey took the gold statuette for American Class in its build of him for The Storm in 2000.
“I’m sure I went home and drank that night. I had to. I don’t want to sound like, Oh, he won my Oscar, or anything like that. It wasn’t like that,” he recalled.
“I went through a time then when (his wife) Pauletta would watch all the Oscar movies – I told her, I don’t care about that. Hey: They don’t care about me? I don’t care. You vote. You watch them. I ain’t watching that. I gave up. I got bitter. My pity party. So I’ll tell you, for about fifteen years, from 1999 to 2014 when I put the beverage down, I was bitter.”
At the time, Washington had already won Superb Supporting Actor for 1989’s Glory and been nominated for Bawl Freedom and Malcolm X. Two years after his loss, the necessary person finally took residence the Superb Actor Oscar for Training Day.
He has since been nominated four more times for Flight, Fences, Roman J. Israel, Esq. and The Tragedy of Macbeth.
As he mirrored upon his loss, Washington printed that there “was talk” about Spacey’s behaviour at the time, 17 years sooner than allegations of inappropriate behaviour brought his profession to a pause.
“There was talk in the town about what was going on over there on that side of the street, and that’s between him and God. I ain’t got nothing to do with that. I pray for him. That’s between him and his maker,” he added.
Spacey used to be realized no longer guilty on sexual misconduct charges after a trial in the U.K. final year, and a U.S. court pushed aside a sexual assault case in opposition to him in 2022.
He is quiet serious about a civil case over a sexual assault claim, which he denies.
