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Credits: Far Out \/ Gabriel Hutchinson Photography<\/p>\n
Sat 14 February 2026 1:00, UK <\/p>\n
Recently, some folks in internet-land have discovered something about\u00a0Denzel Washington<\/a>, or more so his career, which is that he has up to this point handily made exactly 52 films, allowing you, should you so wish, to watch one Denzel movie every week for an entire year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, whether or not you would want to do this is a matter for discussion. For one thing, there are so many good films out there that don\u2019t star the New York legend that are worth your time, off the top of my head,\u00a0Scarecrow,\u00a0A Matter of Life and Death and\u00a0Ace in the Hole,\u00a0for example. But to counter that, there are also a lot of excellent Denzel Washington movies too<\/a>, so maybe it is indeed a worthwhile exercise.\u00a0<\/p>\n And because he\u2019s been at it for so long, you\u2019ll also get your money\u2019s worth when it comes to different genres, too. Want some gruesome vigilante action? Well then there\u2019s The Equalizer and Man on Fire. Courtroom drama? Try Philadelphia and The Pelican Brief.\u00a0Disaster movie fan? Unstoppable and Flight will suit your needs. The man has pretty much done it all, save for Superheroes and maybe outright comedy, which wouldn\u2019t really suit him at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maybe it\u2019s because we see him so often in a kind of lone wolf capacity that it makes it hard to imagine Washington in a more romantic scenario, but that was originally something that would have made up part of the aforementioned The Pelican Brief with Julia Roberts back in 1993, before it was dropped. <\/p>\n Based on a John Grisham novel, originally in the book, Washington and Roberts\u2019 characters were lovers, but that was jettisoned pretty quickly, with Washington explaining: \u201cI felt, and I think (director) Alan Pakula felt as well, that it just didn\u2019t work. I know Alan didn\u2019t think it worked, because it wasn\u2019t in the screenplay. So it wasn\u2019t like we tried to avoid it or anything. It was just bad taste.\u201d<\/p>\n Changes also had to be made to promotional material for the film, not least the original poster, which for some reason only showed Julia Roberts<\/a>, with only Washington\u2019s name at the bottom. Following an intervention from Denzel, the next iteration showed Roberts at a computer with him looking over her shoulder. He was at pains to say that nobody got upset about it, but did explain at the time: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a legal problem. Let\u2019s just say that I sat down with the head of the studio, and we worked it out.\u201d<\/p>\n Hastily revised posters and all, the film was a big success on release, bringing in $200m against a budget of less than $50m, no doubt spurred on by the fact that at the time Julia Roberts was probably the leading female actor in the world thanks to Pretty Woman, Sleeping With The Enemy and Hook. John Grisham adaptations were also all the rage in the 1990s, with The Rainmaker, A Time to Kill and Tom Cruise\u2019s The Firm all cleaning up at the box office. <\/p>\n