Denzel Washington 'doesn't have a lot of friends' in Hollywood

19 November 2024

Denzel Washington "doesn't have a lot of friends" in Hollywood.

Denzel Washington 'doesn't have a lot of friends' in Hollywood

The 69-year-old actor - who has been married to Pauletta Washington since 1983 - has had a career on screen for more than four decades but admitted that he hasn't managed to garner a great social circle from those also in the industry other than a select few.

Writing in an essay for Esquire, he said: "I don’t have a lot of actor friends. Family friends, sure, like [actor] Sam Jackson. His wife and Pauletta go way back, and he and I go all the way back to 'A Soldier’s Play', in 1981. But now, when I make a movie, I’m not trying to make friends. We wrap, I’m trying to go home. That’s not to say that if I see, I don’t know, Tom Hanks, it’s not great—it is! I love Tom Hanks. I just don’t see him. I didn’t see him much before Philadelphia, either. We’re in the same business but not necessarily the same town at any moment. Just the way it goes."

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The Oscar-winning star - who has Jon, 40, Katia, 36, as well as 33-year-old twins Olivia and Malcolm with Pauletta - follows the Christian faith and noted that it is just "not sexy" to discuss religion in the world of show business so he is unaware how many of his contemporaries also think like him.

He said: "It’s not fashionable. It’s not sexy. But that doesn’t mean people in Hollywood don’t believe. There’s no such thing called Hollywood anyway. What does that even mean? That to me means a street called Hollywood Boulevard.

"It’s not like we all meet somewhere and discuss what we believe. So I don’t know how many other actors have faith. I didn’t do no poll. How would I find that out? I mean, there’s no Church Actor Meetings I’ve been to."