In February of last year, Denzel Washington garnered his tenth Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in The Tragedy of Macbeth, making him the most nominated Black actor in Oscars history (and breaking his own record).
With this nomination, Washington has received at least one nomination in every decade since the 1980s, beginning with Cry Freedom in 1988, and continuing with Glory, Malcolm X, The Hurricane, Training Day, Flight, Fences, and Roman J. Israel, Esq.
His storied career began in theater, including Shakespeare’s Othello while a student at Fordham University and Coriolanus in Central Park in 1979. Washington’s film career includes the role of Don Pedro in Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 version of Much Ado About Nothing, a Broadway revival of Julius Caesar in the leading role of Marcus Brutus, and a return to Shakespeare in the Park as Richard Duke of Gloucester in Richard III.
Of The Tragedy of Macbeth, directed by Joel Coen, Washington says “I’m trying to think of another time when something at this scale, in terms of Shakespeare, that has the diversity that it does.”
Read Denzel Washington’s full interview on Shakespeare, acting, and diversity
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