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During a recent appearance on Max’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace on April 26, 2024, Ethan Hawke revealed the advice his Training Day co-star Denzel Washington gave him after the former lost at the 2002 Academy Awards.
In 2002, Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke were Oscar-nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively for their performance in the 2001 crime thriller film, Training Day. While Washington won, Hawke lost.
During the episode, Hawke told the host after he lost the award Washington whispered in his ear during the ceremony that it was better to lose the Oscar, saying:
“You don’t want an award to improve your status. You want to improve the award’s status.”
Ethan Hawke says Denzel Washington is “the greatest actor of our generation"
During an interview with Chris Wallace, Ethan Hawke shared his experience working with Denzel Washington, comparing the encounter to playing baseball with legendary sportsman Babe Ruth.
The Leave the World Behind star, who described Washington as “the greatest actor of our generation,” told Wallace that winning Oscars did not elevate Denzel Washinton’s stature as an actor but raised the prestige of the award.
“I think when all is said and done, he’s the greatest actor of our generation,... It didn’t elevate who he was.”
Two-time Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington earned an Oscar for his performances in Glory in 1989 and Training Day in 2002.
After Washinton won the award in 2002, he acknowledged Sidney Poitier, the first black man to win an Oscar, in his speech after the Academy chose to give an honorary Oscar to the legendary actor at the same ceremony. Washington said he would always follow in Poitier’s footsteps before the two actors raised their Oscars to each other.
“Forty years I've been chasing Sidney [Poitier], they finally give it to me, what'd they do? They give it to him the same night. I'll always be chasing you, Sidney. I'll always be following in your footsteps. There's nothing I would rather do, sir. Nothing I would rather do. God bless you. God bless you.”
During a recent interview when Wallace asked Ethan Hawke if he would have rather just won the Oscar, the actor admitted that he was just grateful to be nominated among the greats.
“I mean, yeah, I guess. I was at the Oscars sitting next to Denzel Washington and nominated against Ian McKellen. I had already won. It was impossible for me not to see it any other way.”
Ethan Hawke was nominated four times for an Academy Award but the actor is yet to win. Hawke, who has established himself as an actor, a writer, and a filmmaker, was first nominated as Best Supporting Actor in 2001's Training Day. In 2014 he was again nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Boyhood.
In 2005 and 2014, Hawke was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay alongside Richard Linklater and Julie Delpy for the second and third installments of the Before Sunset trilogy.
Hawke, who made his Marvel debut in the streaming series Moon Knight alongside Oscar Isaac, recently directed his daughter Maya Hawke in the 2023 film Wild Cat.
