Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua have teamed up for the first time for 2021 "Training Day". Denzel's casting in the film caused controversymainly because it was his first time playing a bad guy and certain groups were concerned that he would squander years of goodwill built up by playing morally upright characters in his numerous projects. But his performance as corrupt LAPD narcotics officer Alonzo Harris proved that no matter what role you cast him in, Washington can create a memorable and beguiling character that, whether good or bad, will stick with audiences long after the publication of the titles.

13 years after Fuqua helped Washington prove he could play villains just as well as any other character, the duo reunited for a very different type of project. In 2014's The Equalizer, the veteran star played someone so devoted to the idea of ​​doing what's right that he was willing to commit mass violence in pursuit of preserving cosmic justice. The film saw Washington as Robert McCall, an ex-Marine and DIA officer who fulfills the classic action movie archetype of the guy who's really good at punching and shooting people, but just wants to be left alone. When we first meet McCall, he's put his fighting days behind him, but is forced to demonstrate his elite skills after teenager Terry/Alina (Chloe Grace Moretz) is brutalized by members of the Russian mob. It seems that in order to play this reluctant avenger, Washington developed an incredible character trait that brought him back to his "Training Day" performance.

The Equalizer movies, of which there are now three, are based on the 1980s CBS television series of the same name. But Antoine Fuqua's films chart their own course, creating a very different story for Denzel Washington's Robert McCall. For one thing, Washington's version of the character has OCD, which was not only not an aspect of the original series, but was not even in the film's script.

When we first meet McCall in 2014's The Equalizer, he's a widower from Boston living a quiet life working in a hardware store. Of course, as things develop, he reveals a completely different side to himself, displaying fighting skills that could even give John Wick a run for his money. While Washington was able to approach such an archetypal action character without thinking too much about it, the man brought his signature insight to the part, telling The BBC“The producer loved the name and the basic premise and that was about it. I helped develop the character a little bit more."

One of his biggest contributions to McCall's character seems to have been the obsessive-compulsive aspect, a subject Washington began reading about after signing on to the project. The actor told the BBC, "I developed a story for myself that whatever he was doing - and I'm glad we're not saying - caused a lot of damage or post-traumatic stress. He lost his wife - we don't really know why - and it manifests itself in this obsessive compulsive behaviour." That behavior is most evident in McCall's use of the clock to time his various takedowns of entire groups of lunatics. But what's really interesting about the whole OCD element of McCall's character is that Washington didn't tell his director about anything until filming began.

During filming for Denzel Washington's "Training Day" routinely went off script and the movie was all the better for it. Director Antoine Fuqua seemed to encourage such improvisation as well, having already recruited real gang members to appear in the film and generally wanting things to feel as authentic and spontaneous as possible.

Washington seems to have continued the tradition of adding its own flare to the script with The Equalizer as well. Fuqua revealed on The Rich Eisen Show that the actor "made up OCD," adding, "It's something he just started doing. "I didn't even know." Explaining how he discovered Washington's addition to Robert McCall's character, Fuqua said:

“(Denzel) wanted a napkin, he wanted a cup, and we were sitting there in the first (film) in the coffee shop and he just started doing it and I just let the camera roll, I just started shooting it. part of that character, so there's something about Robert McCall that Denzel really responds to, and you have to ask him what that is."

Fuqua compared the moment to when Washington added his famous "King Kong" line to Alonzo's final speech during the climax of "Training Day"—another completely improvised moment that caught the director off guard. Washington continued this tradition when filming The Tragedy of Macbeth. also. Whether he tried it with his Gladiator II character remains unconfirmed, but it certainly would have rubbed notorious dead man Ridley Scott the wrong way, so hopefully we'll be hearing some stories of Denzel Washington spewing some angry improv to the director in the near future.