whenever i talk about Antoine Fuqua I often comment that he is one of the few directors who, regardless of the always understandable ups and downs in quality that can occur in a filmography, have not once disappointed me when getting behind the cameras. However, and despite my admiration for titles like both ‘Equalizer’ or the surprising remake of ‘The Magnificent Seven’, we must admit that in 2001 reached a milestone that has not been matched since.
I am referring, of course, to the achievement achieved with the magnificent ‘Training Day’; a cathedral of the modern crime thriller—thanks in part to David Ayer’s superb script—that ultimately dazzled thanks to the main performances of Ethan Hawke and, above all, a Denzel Washington in a state of grace.
improv day
Washington’s role as the corrupt Alonzo transcended to the screen and became a kind of popular icon at that time, and that was thanks to some memorable moments such as the one in which he sings his mythical “King Kong ain’t got shit on me.” !”. But how do you stay if I tell you that the phrase was the result of improvisation?
During a Vanity Fair special in which he compiled the 25 most influential scenes in cinema, Fuqua made the revelation, explaining how both, director and performer, were surprised.
“The King Kong moment came up with Denzel. I remember it because we were doing the scene and he started to drift. I remember looking at the cameraman and saying, ‘I hope you got that, because I don’t think we’re going to get it again.’ Denzel comes and he’s like, ‘Whooo, I don’t know where that came from.’ It was exhausting for him, you just see him go there, to that place… You just set out to make a good movie and somehow it turns into something. cultural”.
Anyone who has worked with actors will know perfectly well that there are few things as magical as an actor letting himself be carried away by the drama of a scene and going off the beaten path until, hopefully, reaching some moment of enlightenment. Washington, with this passage from ‘Training Day’, directly touched the sky.