From his 40-year marriage to the woman he met on the set of his first ever film to eschewing the limelight despite being one of the most celebrated actors of his generation, Denzel Washington has long been considered one of the true ‘nice guys’ in Hollywood.
The father-of-four describes himself as a ‘simple’ man who tries to ‘do the right thing’ and ‘doesn’t want movie star friends’.
So it was all the more surprising to fans to see the Oscar winner’s mask apparently slip on the Cannes Film Festival red carpet as he lashed out at an overzealous photographer while attending the premiere of his movie Highest 2 Lowest on Monday.
However, beneath the serene surface, the actor, 70, is a more complicated character and has fought a number of personal battles, including struggles with drugs and alcohol.
Despite his film career that’s won him two Oscars, three Golden Globes and an AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, he’s not naturally comfortable in the limelight and last year remonstrated with fans who were waiting for him outside the Museum of Modern Art at an event honouring Samuel L. Jackson.
Despite his movie star status, the actor doesn’t see himself as a celebrity and has previously insisted he doesn’t know what ‘Hollywood’ means.
On Monday night, he had an altercation with a photographer on the red carpet who appeared to grab the actor’s arm to get his attention.
As Denzel turned to the photographer he appeared to shout: ‘Hey, one — one more time, stop.
‘Let me tell you — stop, stop — never put your hands on me again,’ he appears to shout at the photographer, who had a bizarre grin plastered on his face throughout the exchange.
‘I’m talking to you, stop, all right,’ he continued.
The photographer replied to Denzel by saying: ‘Not allowed,’ before laughing and adding, ‘Yes, yes, yes.’
Despite the actor’s emphatic words and body language, the photographer could be seen grabbing at Denzel again in the clip, and asked, ‘Can I take a picture?’
Denzel, who appeared completely fed up at that point, shouted back: ‘Stop, stop it, stop it. I mean it. Stop, stop it.’
Despite the intensity of his words, many of the photographers surrounding Denzel — including the one he was yelling at — were smiling, suggesting that they may not have realized how upset he was.
The actor then pulled out of the press conference for Highest 2 Lowest after the tense exchange.
However, the actor has a long history of tense interactions with photographers over the years. Denzel was filmed in an altercation with autograph hunters in New York City in October 2024.
The Oscar-winning actor snapped at fans as he arrived at the Museum of Modern Art for a film benefit honoring Samuel L. Jackson – with the tense exchange captured in a dramatic video.
The Man on Fire star was seen arriving at the museum and posing with a fan – while autograph hunters called his name to the side.
A visibly annoyed Washington went to walk inside but then turned and addressed a fan in the crowd.
While the entire exchange cannot be deciphered, the actor was seen pointing his finger and heard saying: ‘I heard you. You talk about showing love…’
‘…Respecting me’ to which the fan said ‘we already do.’
Washington retorted: ‘I said I’ll see you when I get out, which part of that don’t y’all understand?
‘It’s about showing love’ – before raising his voice and declaring ‘or not, or not! we can do it another way… or not, we can do it both ways!’
He then walked inside the building after the incident.
And in 2021 Washington was pictured having an intense moment with a fan.
The movie star was by his car when the fan walked over to him with a sack of photos for him to sign in New York City.
The pair engaged in an intense conversation with the actor looking like he was given the fan some pearls of wisdom.
He placed his hands on his shoulder and looked deep in his eyes, looking like he was forgetting to keep socially distanced for a second.
While Denzel had his mask on, the fan had his pulled down to his chin for the moment as the Hollywood star placed his hands around his face.
An onlooker claimed he told the fan to ‘say a prayer’ but it is not known what they were talking about.
Denzel had a more playful exchange with a fan eight years ago while he was being interviewed by Terri Seymour on US entertainment news show Extra!
Someone could be heard screaming in the background before Denzel playfully invited the woman to ‘be on the show’.
His fan then appeared on camera laughing before Terri warned her, ‘don’t touch too much’.
Denzel has also crossed hairs with colleagues in the past as Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo revealed the pair shared words when he directed an episode of the series back in 2012.
On her podcast Tell Me With Ellen Pompeo, the actress said they clashed after she improvised in a scene with another actor.
Speaking with former co-star Patrick Dempsey, Ellen said that the actor she was working with ‘made this choice to speak very softly,’ and Washington yelled at her after she gave the actor instruction.
‘I was like, ‘Look at me when you apologize. Look at me.’ And that wasn’t in the dialogue,’ Pompeo said. ‘And Denzel went ham on my a**. He was like, ‘I’m the director. Don’t you tell him what to do.”
‘I was like, ‘Listen, motherf***er, this is my show, this is my set. Who are you telling?”
Ellen said she has the ‘utmost respect for [Washington] as an actor and director,’ and chalked up their clash to the nature of the business.
‘We didn’t get through it without a fight, but that’s actors for you,’ Pompeo said. ‘Passionate and fiery and that’s where you get the magic, and that’s where you get the good stuff. So, it was an amazing experience, it really was.’
Ellen added that she told Washington’s wife Pauletta Washington about the exchange.
She said: ‘I told his wife, I was like, ‘Yeah, he yelled at me today. He let me have it today, and I’m not OK with him, and I’m not looking at him, and I’m not talking to him.”
However, relations are good between the pair with Denzel later admitting to Variety he didn’t recall the exchange, adding: ‘No, no … but it’s all good.’
Denzel had a much more tense exchange with actor Josh Brolin when they worked together on the film American Gangster.
Josh told film producer Brian Grazer had been going around the set praising him and co-star Russell Crowe which he thinks may have got under Denzel’s skin.
During a rehearsal with Denzel, Josh forgot one of his lines and made the mistake of putting his hand on the star’s shoulder.
Speaking on the In Depth with Graham Bansinger podcast, he said: ‘I put my hand on his shoulder and I said, ‘What’s the line?’ and he hit my hand off and he said, ‘Don’t ever f***ing put your hand on me.
‘And I was like, ‘Holy s***, I’m gonna scrap with Denzel Washington. This is crazy.’ We’re not actors anymore … at least in my mind.’
Josh added he is not sure whether Denzel was staying in character as his role of Frank Lucas.
He said: ‘In his mind, he was just doing his job. He was Frank Lucas, period. But I didn’t know. And then we got through that moment and I said, ‘Are you OK?’
‘He said, ‘Yeah, you?’ I said ‘Yeah. Can I get my line?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, go for it.’ It’s like he said what he needed to say.’
The pair have since buried the hatchet and are now friends.
It has also been claimed Denzel once got into a heated argument with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs following a night of partying back in 2003.
A source claimed to Us Weekly that ‘Denzel screamed, ‘You don’t respect anyone” at the hip hop mogul, who is currently awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
‘[Denzel and his wife, Pauletta Washington] had been partying until dawn [with Diddy], and they had seen something and stormed out,’ the source told the outlet.
In the early 2000s, Washington and Diddy were seen out together on a number of occasions, including the 2001 Essence Awards, former President Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009 and two NBA games.
It is unclear what the men were fighting about, but there is no indication that the fight is related to Diddy’s current criminal charges.
Denzel and Diddy’s representatives have not returned DailyMail.com’s requests for comment, at this time.
Two decades after the alleged incident, Diddy is being held in custody at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Centre as he faces charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking.
Denzel previously told how he believes he has ‘done a lot of damage’ to his body due to past drug and alcohol abuse.
The actor, who has been sober for 10 years, recalled how his problems first began with wine.
Speaking to Esquire, he said: ‘Wine is very tricky. It’s very slow. It ain’t like boom, all of a sudden.
On drugs, he added: ‘I never got strung out on heroin. Never got strung out on coke. Never got strung out on hard drugs. I shot dope just like they shot dope, but I never got strung out.
‘And I never got strung out on liquor. I had this ideal idea of wine tastings and all that — which is what it was at first. And that’s a very subtle thing. I mean, I drank the best.’
Denzel said he had a wine cellar in his home and would often spend thousands on pricey bottles, but was careful never to drink while he was working. He stopped drinking shortly after his 60th birthday.
Speaing to CBS Sunday Morning, he explained, ‘I’m a stage actor who does film; it’s not the other way around. I did stage first. I learned how to act on stage, not on film. Movies are a filmmaker’s medium.
‘You shoot it, and then you’re gone, and they cut together and add music and do all of that. Theater is an actor’s medium. The curtain goes up, nobody can help you.’
