THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 28, 1995 TAG: 9509280034
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: HOLLYWOOD PROFILE
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 146 lines
DENZEL WASHINGTON doesn't play the devil. Nor does he wear a dress. After all, this is not ``To Wong Foo. . . . ''
The movie is ``Devil in a Blue Dress,'' and Denzel Washington is Easy Rawlings, a reluctant private investigator in post-World War II Los Angeles.
For Washington, it is a return to earth after a series of highbrow roles - doctors, lawyers and submarine officers.
``Easy is a reluctant hero,'' Washington, 41, said as he sat in the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto. ``He's an average guy who just gets thrown into this bizarre set of situations. He just wants to make enough money to pay his rent, but he ends up suspected of murder. He can't get out.''
Washington looked no worse for wear following a near-riot the night before at a party following the world premiere of the movie. It was the closing night of the Toronto International Film Festival and the party was held on three floors of a shopping mall near the theater. Even though Washington was in a roped-off section, the crowd stormed him, seeking autographs and a closer look.
Don Cheadle, who steals a number of scenes in the movie as Mouse, Easy's trigger-happy sidekick, shook his head. ``I'd love to get the roles that Denzel gets,'' Cheadle said, ``but I don't envy him having to live that life. He's had to sacrifice his privacy - everything. He can't go anywhere. This place was turned into a zoo when he got here.''
Carl Franklin, the director of ``Devil in a Blue Dress,'' said, ``his privacy is a part of Denzel's attraction. He holds secrets. Paul Muni did that. So does De Niro and, of course, Brando did it. It's a part of Denzel. He doesn't let you know too much.''
In ``Devil in a Blue Dress,'' the detective hero is fired from his job and, to pay his mortgage, takes a gig looking for a mysterious white woman named Daphne Monet in the heart of Central Avenue, Los Angeles' thriving black community. The year is 1948, the post-war era. It's based on the first of the immensely popular series of detective yarns penned by Walter Mosley.
Franklin's budget for ``Devil'' was $21 million, 10 times higher than his 1992 cult hit, ``One False Move.''
``I feel,'' Franklin said, ``we need a male, black hero on screen right now. For the past decade, young male blacks have been unpopular in the mainstream. They're seen as people who make trouble, don't have jobs and leave women pregnant on welfare rolls. That's not the only picture that should be out there.''
Franklin, 46, said that ``Shaft,'' in its day, ``may not have been a great movie, but it put a black hero out there for the young men to see. I always hated that they called those movies `black exploitation' films. Everyone, from Charles Bronson to Clint Eastwood, has made exploitation movies of one type or another. The black films cost nothing to make. They made money, yet they disappeared. In 1973, 110 black films were made. In 1977, 10 were made. In 1979, only one was made. There was a long, empty period until Spike (Lee) came along, with more serious fare - fare that was still commercial. I feel there's a place for a black detective who is not funny. This isn't `Cotton Comes to Harlem.' ''
The director emphasized that he wanted a real sense of danger in the film. ``When someone pulls a knife or a gun, you know someone is in danger. You know someone might get killed. This is not play-acting. We wanted the real drama.''
It's already being called ``the black Chinatown'' because the plot involves politics and power plays - much as the classic ``Chinatown'' did.
Washington flew to Toronto from North Carolina, where he dropped his four children for their annual stay with their grandparents (the parents of his wife, actress-singer Pauletta Pearson, to whom he's been married for 15 years). He identified the location only as ``a little town near Charlotte,'' adding, ``it's good for them to live in the country for awhile each year - keeps them grounded.''
``Devil'' is the third Denzel Washington movie to come out this year. First there was the big hit, ``Crimson Tide,'' in which he sparred with Gene Hackman aboard a submarine. Then there was the less successful computer-thriller ``Virtuosity.''
``I made that one because my son wanted me to be in an action movie like that,'' he said. ``It was the first time I was in a movie so filled with special effects. I never knew what it would look like until I saw the finished film.''
Within weeks, he starts work on a military-action movie called ``Courage Under Fire,'' produced by his own company.
He denies, though, that he is a workaholic. Just before flying to North Carolina, he took the children and his wife on an extended vacation to Africa, including a safari into the jungles (complete with tents and gourmet food) and a visit to South African president Nelson Mandela. He was treated like a head of state during the visit and contributed $1 million to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund.
``I believe in giving back,'' he said. ``You can't take it with you. I've never yet seen a U-Haul-It trailer attached to a casket.''
He and Pauletta also renewed their wedding vows in a ceremony officiated by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Washington now gets $10 million per picture, but he claims his life is relatively simple. He sounds a bit guilty, though, when he admits he drives a Porsche, a Mercedes and a Ferrari. ``Cars are my weakness,'' he said.
He laughs a lot, but he got noticeably uptight when a member of the Canadian press asked him if ``Devil in a Blue Dress'' would stand a chance of ``crossing over to the white audience.''
``I don't think in that way,'' he said with a glare. ``An audience is an audience. `Crimson Tide' took in over $100 million in the United States alone. I don't have any way of knowing why people went, but they went. I think I've already passed that stage.''
Washington's father, a Pentecostal preacher, was born in Dilwyn, Va. (in Buckingham County). His mother was from Georgia. Born and raised in Mount Vernon, N.Y., Denzel's first job, at age 11, was cleaning up at the local barber shop and in his mother's beauty shop.
``The greatest dramas in the world were played there,'' he remembered. ``Everyone met there to tell stories. The beauty shop was just as interesting as the barber shop, but I was after getting a dollar from anyone who would give me one.''
He majored in journalism at Fordham University, graduating in 1977. ``I covered the city council meetings to write news stories,'' he said, but he soon found acting more to his liking.
A scholarship to the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco got him to the West Coast. He met Pauletta when she co-starred in his first big acting job, a TV-movie called ``Wilma,'' the story of Olympic track star Wilma Rudolph. He played the boyfriend.
His first big movie role was ``Carbon Copy'' in which he played George Segal's illegitimate black son. He remembers that he was on the unemployment line a week after the movie finished. In New York, ``A Soldier's Play'' was a hit Off-Broadway. A role in the hit TV series ``St. Elsewhere'' gave him a steady income, and notoriety. He hasn't been out of work since.
His movies are notable, though, for a lack of love scenes. Even in ``Devil in a Blue Dress,'' the sexual affair with the character played by Jennifer Beals has been changed from the book to the point that it doesn't exist.
``I guess I am a little uncomfortable with love scenes,'' he said, ``but I'll play what is in the script, if I take the script.''
No contracts have been signed for movie versions of the other three books that chronicle the further adventures of Easy Rawlins. ``Generally, I don't want to do sequels, but let's see how this one goes. If people like it enough, and there's another good script, it could work.'' MEMO: Jennifer Beals proves she's more than a flash in the pan: Page E6
ILLUSTRATION: TRISTAR PICTURES
[Color Photo]
Don Cheadle, left, threatens Denzel Washington with friendly fire in
the new mystery drama "Devil in a Blue Dress," which opens Friday.
BRUCE W. TALAMON
Denzel Washington and Jennifer Beals are caught up in a murderous
plot in ``Devil in a Blue Dress.''
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB