Agree, but I’m also exhausted of discovering people you grew up watching are abhorrent human beings. Mans roamed the earth with minimal controversy, I’ll take it.
Having grown up in the L.A. area, yes, the overwhelming amount of time you really don’t want to meet your heroes.
I’m glad he’s as down to earth as he comes across on a screen. Samuel Jackson is also apparently a very nice dude.
And keanu by all accounts
Got to meet three of my heroes and all of them have been so nice.
Tony Hawk, Bruce Campbell, and Catherine Bach.
Tony Hawk is a good dude. Did you mean Catherine Bach? Daisy Duke? Wow. Childhood crush!
I was second in line to meet her and the gentleman in front of me was so excited I felt excited for him. He barely spoke English (I talked with him a little while waiting) and he had the most stereotypical tourist camera around his neck. He cried when he met her. I was really happy to meet her but nothing like that, made me feel like a phony, lol.
Yes, thank you - Fixed
Bruce Campbell was a dick to me :(
I still love him though
Did he touch you with his boom stick?
Should’ve given him some sugar, baby.
He was in character! He just wanted to give you the authentic experience
How can you drop that and pull a Skeletor without telling the story?
Dang, I'd love to meet Bruce Campbell! He's acted in so many things that shaped my formative years.
Met him 3 times // First time was at e3. I waited 4 hours to meet him and was first in line. I had a DVD copy of Running Time for him to sign. After introducing himself and shaking my hand he asked me how long I waited to meet him. When I said 4 hours, he asked me to sit next to him and we talked for about 15 minutes. I eventually excused myself because I felt like I was taking up too much of his time but he was nothing but amazing.
Keanu is Canadian, I’d expect that from him
Canadians only get angry when it comes to hockey and war
Actually we're pretty fucking angry all the time, but we're also really, really sorry about that. Hockey and war just give us an excuse to be less sorry.
Canadians are no nicer than people from most countries. We just keep it in more.
Remember, it's not a war crime if it's the first time
I'm old fashioned, I think I'm going to stick with "it's not a war crime if they're nazis".
I saw a video of Reeves riding a bus to catch a flight and was fully engaged in conversation with the people in it.
Tbh I cannot think of a single vid captured by regular people around Reeves where he was anything less than a class act. I believe he’s honestly a great person at heart.
He even hoverhands!
I kinda want Samuel to cuss me out and call me a muthafucka lol
Alexa used to have a feature where you could different voices. I picked Samuel Jackson and it was fun when you asked what the weather was going to be like. Too bad they don’t still have that.
Getting cussed out in public by him would be legendary.
I was so upset when Waze removed his voice for my drives. I would know exactly how to get to where I was headed and still turn it on
He was on Waze? That would have been awesome. I would probably use the app then. “Motherfucker turn right at the next light! I said, turn right at the god damn light!”
He was and it was everything lol
There was a promotion for some project of his back in the mid 2000s where you could enter a phone number and a few details about the person (name, type of transportation, and others) and it would generate a bespoke robocall rendered with the voice of Samuel Jackson.
I plugged in the number and info of a guy a used to work with and forgot about it. Months later I was in town and stopped in to see who all was still working at the old place (bar/restaurant) and seeing him reminded me to ask about it.
Apparently it made such an impression that he was still telling everybody about the call from Sam Jackson telling him to " hop in that piece of shit Chrysler 5th avenue he drives, go pick up his dumbass friend Juice, and go see his new muthafuckin movie"
Edit: just looked it up, apparently it was Snakes on a Plane! Can't believe I didn't remember that detail
I would love to meet Sam Jackson! I’m not a super fan or anything but he reminds me soooo much of my grandpa.
Also, I got to meet and work with Harry Belafonte when he was living and my goodness what a pleasant human being. I agree about how disappointing it can be to meet your hero and it be such a let down though.
Fact.
I got knocked down as kid by David Hasselhoff at Oktoberfest once. My dad was stationed nearby Munich and going was a fun and easy thing but yeah, in the crowd this guy kinda pushes me out of the way and I stumble and fall. I look up and see Knightrider. He wasn't my hero but I thought he was cool but doing that to a kid was not.
Ass.
Agree. What an ass.
Harry Belafonte is one of my heroes, thank you for confirming his goodness
Moderator removed comment
1mo
Whole hearted smile for sure
Pure facial muscle reaction to emotion. Not a single controllable part of that smile.
Ever watch an interview with him? He does not business! I've seen many an interviewer reduced, because he doesn't "play the game".
This pic is sending me 😂😂😂
The one time my show interviewed him, we asked him about showing his ass on camera and he actually enjoyed it
The most controversial thing he’s done recently is make an Equalizer 3
I was so sick of those ads
When that came out, I rewatched the first 2, and then watched the 3rd one. Honesty, and maybe I'm crazy here, but I think I enjoyed the 3rd one the most. Seeing an "old man badass" was kind of awesome.
I loved the third one the most and it's mostly because he's finally got his happy ending.
It wasn't a woman, it was a place that gave him a chance to earn some solace and peace.
He set his burden down and has allowed himself to be happy. That speaks to me.
Plus he got to briefly reunite with that little kidnapped girl he died for back in 2004, and she was doing okay so that was nice.
(It was some Redditor’s headcannon and now it’s mine too ☺️)
Shit, it was my head cannon too! I was so excited when she came on screen. Man on Fire is one of my fave Denzel movies
It’s because he has always kept his private life and family out of the tabloids.. can’t do nuthin but respect it.
When I met Denzel in the chip aisle at a Giant Eagle grocery store in Canton, Ohio he was kind of rude… I was like “hey yo Denzel! Sup my homie, can I get an autograph? Make it out to Kyle”, and he frowned at me, asked “does every black person look like Denzel Washington to you?”, and walked away.
Being a black professional in a white dominated industry implies they have to meet a very high bar for decency n professionalism compared to their white counterparts. Even a small misstep can be blown out of proportions and set their career back by ages.
Didn’t stop Cosby lol
"Never meet your heroes" should be boomer advice imo. World needs better heroes, like that king.
Yeah, at this point I take celebrities being decent and human as a win for our culture. So tired of being disappointed in people.
truly a rare thing
Man’s pure class 💜🙏
Facts. Denzel is a treasure.
His mentality about his career and the way he speaks about his mom shows that she has always been a special, loving, and hardworking person in his life and he internalized those positive behaviors.
Dude wondered into a wedding in Italy and decided to pay for it.
He's really not built like the rest of Hollywood.
His kid seems to be a straight up dude to and a pretty solid actor. You can always tell how good a person is by the actions of their children.
I'd love to meet Denzel and Danny DeVito someday. From what I've read, both are super down to earth and friendly men.
Oh, they made a movie out of that Public Enemy record?
Denzel keeping it fresh is the polar opposite of Roseanne going off the deep end.
There's poetry there, somewhere.
And if her reward for leaving work early was Denzel calling her pretty, just imagine the reward if she quit her job
I think my best pickup line I ever used was completely unintentional. Had the same energy as this Denzel line.
I own a craft brewery and sometimes people use a separate “mobile canning” company to package their product. They show up, set up a canning line, package, throw the line back in the truck, drive off to the next brewery. Anyway, we’re new clients so this regional VP decides to come down and look at our facility on the first run. Gorgeous young blonde woman (25yo) steps out of her car and I (30M) having a passing thought of “Dayum” before our crews get to it.
At the end of the day, I’m exhausted, go into our taproom to use the bathroom and she’s trying on merch. As I walk by her she says “I don’t think these have ever looked good on me” and just not thinking, I say “I dunno, there’s something to the whole ‘pretty girl in a trucker cap’ look.” Looks up at me and I can literally see her pupils dilate. I immediately think “Oh…OHH, um, don’t panic.” I asked her if she knows Miami, she says no, I recommend some spots, she asks me if I want to show some of them to her tonight, we go out and wind up hooking up.
But yeah it’s just funny because it just rolled off my tongue when I was exhausted and not even thinking/trying.
I can’t even read the words, all I hear is,” meep meep meep.”
“Sadly temporary.”
It’s gotta be one of my favorite muppets. Still no idea why his sidekick has glasses but no eyes.
Not even a “right in front of my …..”?
well i do. meet double dong denzel
Compliments from strangers stick with me for days. That would last me the rest of the year lol
It’s been documented that Denzel has refused to kiss white women on film for any roll. He stated that his reasoning is that black women are not portrayed as objects of desire, in film- and he was not going to, as a black male heartthrob, further that mentality by having interracial romance on screen. I think the problem goes deeper than cinema since, statistically, black woman are the least sought after demographic, romantically, in the US. I’m so glad (and not surprised) to hear that he brings that same level of black pride to his personal life, and goes out of his way to make black women feel attractive and desired.
“This your mans?” 💀
He also kissed Angelina Jolie in “The Bone Collector”.
I'd kiss her too
Sounds like this person just has bad information…
I stand corrected. I just looked it up- apparently he didn’t take that stance on interracial romance until 1993, well into his career as a leading man- and I personally cannot blame the man for making an exception for Kelly Reilly. Thank you for the correction.
Movie was in 2012
Shit getting funnier with every reply
Dawg 😂😂😂😂
Yea he is
This is getting awkward AND hilarious!
so much receipts going on you'd swear there was multiple stops at CVS.
💀
My guy got faded in real time 😭
Screaaaaaming
Whole thread got me howling.
I was wondering if someone was gonna show a pic from that scene from when he played the alcoholic pilot.
I tell ya, I was finna let that shit slide cause I didn’t wanna rain on OP’s parade but the internet is fucking undefeated. 💀
"so what had happened was..."
i'm wheezing
Lies!? On the internet!!??
In front of my 🥗???
I can think of two films where he has done so.
One was is Trajninf Day with Eva Mendes, Flight which is this one and then he had another in the 90s where he got drugged and had sex with a white woman lol
Eva Mendez ain't white but that other one definitely is.
Honestly idc what she is I’m not turning down Eva Mendes
Eva Mendes is Cuban, 65 percent of Cubans have predominant Spanish descent.
The Cuban census is public information. Being Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race. Cubans identify as white in their own census.
I mean sure, but that is not a white woman lmao
She ain't an indigenous woman.
She’s probably mixed race. She’s clearly not 100% white/Spaniard, not 100% indigenous or 100% black… so, like a lot of Latinos, she probably has diverse ancestry.
Arab are “white” too in census . But they are not white people…
I have met quite a few Arabs. None of them would consider themselves as white! They are as brown as me.
Is that Cubans in America or Cubans in Cuba? I was told that in Cuba ppl have a higher ethnic background of being African or native descent
Eva Mendez…is considered white?
I mean, probably. You do know the difference between ethnicity and race?
Hispanic is her ethnicity. She's likely Caucasian like most of Cuba, they are primarily descended from the Spanish.
I’m gonna be real with you. I don’t know a single person who would classify Eva Mendez as white, regardless of what you say.
You do know that there are Cubans with African and Amerindian heritage right?
Afro Cuban checking in thanks for keeping us in mind.
I love all the diaspora.
There are fucking French people with African ancestry. Doesn't mean that French people are African.
My family is predominantly Mexican and Cuban, I can tell the difference between indigenous Hispanics and European hispanics. She ain't passing for indigenous. She is Miami Cuban.
Nigga…Malcolm X too
tbf that was illustrating Malcolm's own behavior in dropping a black woman as soon as a white woman paid attention to him
He made that white woman kiss his foot
I’m sure Denzel made Spike add that in
I donno about the other shordie but I’m not gonna lie I don’t blame him for caving for Eva Mendes.
So you think Eva Mendes is a white woman? 🤦🏾♂️
White Latinos exist my man's.
Intersectionality, it's amazing to learn about. Pick up a book and read about it sometime lol
It's like being surprised Black Jewish people (ala Drake and Rashida Jones) exists
What are you talking about?? All those word and ain’t said nothing..
The man asked “if you think Eva mendes is a white woman”?
Mississippi Masala has entered the chat
LMAOOOOO
Came in and sprinkled some facts and closed the bedroom door.
Bro he’s already dead.
Get off they neck!
DAMN
I actually read it was less about black women but more about white men, a core demographic for his action films in the 90’s, not feeling insecure about a black man with a white women.
To be fair that was fairly common with most black male actors until the last 15 years where interracial relationships become more commonly presented in mainstream media.
Important distinction.
Yeah… if you mean he took that stance until 1993, it was fairly early in his leading man status.
We all start out bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
By all accounts, he is a great father and excellent at keeping his private business out of the news. A role model on those fronts.
But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it makes no sense to idolize entertainers. Why are they heroes to begin with? Because their talent (and some luck) made them rich? We need to be more careful about this.
Because he is a man. A man surrounded by temptation. For decades. He’s not messy, but he’s not a hero.
So give him an appropriate level of praise. If you find out tomorrow that he didn’t always keep it crispy (in marriage or race), wouldn’t he still be a great actor with a strong family who never c00ned out on us?
Not hero status. But overall a good man, yeah.
They thought they were cooking with that one 😭😭
What movie?
Flight 2012 Kelly Reilly
So that was a straight up lie lol
I’m not gonna lie- I do feel a little salty about that screenshot. I read that denzel refused to kiss white women when I was a child, and he refused to kiss Julia roberts for a movie they did together. For YEARS I used that as a primary example of self control and discipline- turns out, he would be broken 20 years later by a younger prettier redhead with a British accent 😭
To be fair, I would be broken by a pretty redhead with a British accent, too. 😂
Honestly,same.
I have definitely heard this for him and Julia in The Pelican Brief. I swear I read it was a combo of what you said and the fact that he felt she was much too young to play his love interest (the characters have a relationship in the book).
I’ve heard the opposite, that Hollywood decided America was too racist to see a black man kissing a white woman.
Notice also how generally desexualized Will Smith and Morgan Freeman’s careers have been.
Actually goddamn, have we even come that far? You’ve got Mahershaleh Ali, Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, Michael B Jordan, that prettyboy from Star Wars - have any of these men starred as a romantic lead with a white woman costar? Or do they embody the kind of neutered black masculinity that America has always been comfortable with? Is artistic segregation just as powerful now as it was when Spike Lee was coming up?
They canned the clear romantic interest Finn had In Rey because fan lost their fucking minds they even removed him off the posters in some countries or made him smaller. Fuck Disney for that.
Calling Michael B Jordan desexualized is blowing my mind, but I guess it's just that all his sexy roles are in my daydreams?
His body is sexualized for sure - that’s a type of black masculinity that America knows how to deal with. But has he been in a Ryan Gosling type role opposite an Emma Stone type actress?
Maybe Mike Colter in Luke Cage, and Regé-Jean Page in Bridgerton
Imagine being mixed and hearing someone say they held a 20 years “ideal” of self control against mixed race relations 😭
We can still take the lesson from it.
Denzel the man gets $20M a picture to kiss whoever the script says. But Denzel the symbol is uncorruptable. Like Batman.
Malcom X had him making out with a white woman too. Don't believe everything you read lol
Anti-miscegenation was your primary example of self control and discipline!? Dude...
You would've done well in the pre-Civil Rights US.
This is why folks should never outright believe what they read online. This is all false.
https://youtu.be/fIfQbocblZc?si=yMUpOadeDsQIKq6L
He was banging the shit out of that white girl i flight if I remember correctly. Movie was kinda stupid tho
I was reading up about Pam Grier recently and she talked about why she chose to do topless scenes in a lot of her early films. She approached it from a similar standpoint, that as a Black woman she never got to see people who looked like her as sex symbols or as desirable and attractive women. In particular she said that a lot of mainstream culture was saying specifically that Black women's' nipples were seen as unattractive because they were often darker in color.
So she saw her work as freeing the Black nipple.
And tbh, Pam Grier's early work is fun as hell so I'm glad she acted in them. I hope she had a good time making them.
Very kind man and he’s always standing on business
Just saying it… Aint nothin’ wrong with a lil’ interracial lovin’ either.
Well that’s a lie
Black women are least desired? More for me.
Sis is a lawyer and gorgeous. Proud of her. I had to Google J.D. in her name, and it stands for juris doctor. The degree you need to become a lawyer.
And apparently a big fan of one of my personal favorite tv characters
Dahhhvid
She’s also the star of the The Crows Have Eyes III: The Crowening!
Love me sum her
i can hear this gif
Yes!
Look at her smile! She could light up a neighborhood! I love it!!
Our heroes are getting old now. Denzel is turning 70 🥲
Naaaaaahhhh. He's gotta be 50, and I'm not a day over 30.
He is a genuinely nice person.
That’s awesome! Half expected a Game Night situation where it was a guy she thought was Denzel especially a dude chillin in a train station
Denzel Washington is the type of celebrity that will not disappoint you when you meet him. About 20 years ago he was filming in NYC near my mom’s job. She and a coworker were big fans and they actually got to meet him. Coworker got his autograph and everything. My mom’s coworker somehow left their inhaler behind and Denzel Washington happened to find it. He took the time to find out where they worked and he personally returned the inhaler to her. My mom said he had told the coworker “it was really a pleasure meeting you but please be more careful. No one is worth your life” he didn’t say it in a condescending way or anything. He was genuinely concerned.
Aww, what a sweet story. She’ll having bragging rights for life.
Denzel is a national treasure.
I would simply die of happiness. Good for her!
When my mom was recalled to what was then called Fort Hood, she got to meet Denzel when he came to the hospital to visit with the soldiers. She said he was very gregarious towards everyone.
Outstanding man (and word choice)
wowwww so i was prepared to dispute the fort hood comment but something told me to look it up, but you right they renamed Fort Hood! i used to live in killeen area back in 2018 but now live in cali and had no clue that happened. 😅
Trust me, I looked it up myself when I started the comment. I knew they were talking about changing some base names, but I couldn't remember if Hood was one of them. It's now named Fort Cavazos; it's named after the Army's first Hispanic four-star general.
I'm realising how fast time flies. Now Denzel Washington is the old guy that brings a folding chair onto the subway.
Swoon!
Denzel calls me pretty you ain't telling me shit for a month.
If Denzel calls me pretty, I'm treating it as gospel for life!
love this for her 🤎
I have a Denzel story too. Back in 2010 I went to the Unstoppable premiere at the Westwood Theater by UCLA. They had the red carpet laid out on the side of the road the theater was on and then fans were on the other side of the road behind a barrier. All the other celebs walked the red carpet and went straight into the theater. Denzel walked the carpet and then walked over to the fans and went down the line saying hi to everyone and shaking hands. And then after the premiere was done, all the other celebs were racing to get out of the theater (some didn't even stay for the whole movie), but Denzel was just chilling in the lobby just chatting and asking the fans what they thought of the movie, etc. Denzel is just an awesome dude when it comes to dealing with fans.
I think he’s one of the best actors of our time!
What a wholesome and fantastic memory to be able to lock in! ❤️❤️❤️
The meaning of this is that it's good to leave work early!
I'm an old straight man, and I would swoon if Denzel Washington called me pretty.
Dudes really nice irl, my mom's ran into him at the airport one time, and she was staring, and he asked if she wanted a picture.
“The nigga they couldn’t kill” story is a great one about being typecast
He is a national treasure and we must protect him at all costs.
I just love how he’s so grounded that he’s using the subway, the great equalizer
You ever seen the movie Game Night? Very funny movie with a bit about a woman randomly meeting Denzel
I mean she is really pretty.
Cicely Tyson once (literally) shooed me away when I tried to approach her and Jesse Jackson during some press event. I was salty at her every time I saw her on TV for decades after 😂
Denzel having game is the least surprising thing I’ve come across this morning.