A-List actor Denzel Washington says he knows it isn’t “fashionable” to talk about or even be religious in Hollywood. But he also says he has come to a place in his life where he simply does not care what anyone thinks about his open expressions of faith.
Washington went into intimate specifics about his full turn toward God in a lengthy biographical sketch published this week by Esquire magazine.
In the article, Washington speaks to his life growing up near the projects in New York City, his early life at school, and his introduction to acting. But one part of his life is one few in Hollywood openly speak about and that is religion.
Washington noted that sometime in the mid 1980s he was introduced to L.A.’s West Angeles church by fellow actor Robert Townsend. Obviously, he was well into his adulthood at that point, and he had never really cultivated a solid religious belief despite having grown up in the church with his family. But when he got to West Angeles, he had a spiritual awakening that changed his life.
The Training Day star noted that the church was like so many others in how it operated. He noted that “you have the prayers and everything at the end, and you get up and stand, and then they have that call to the altar, if anyone wants to come and be saved or whatever. ‘Come on up!’ And you go up.” But one Sunday, he got the uge to “come up.” And it was life changing.
“Now, I had never gone up in my life, but this particular day, I said, I’m going up there,” he explained. “I’m just gonna give it up to God today, whatever that means,” he recalls thinking to himself.
After he went up to testify, Washington said that the church officials brought him to a prayer room where they prayed with him and tended to him as he focused on his thoughts about God.
But that day, something changed in his life in a major way. He says he was filled with God.
“And I got back there, and they were praying and telling it to us. I’m hallelujah-ing. I was just feeling. It felt like I was getting lifted up. It felt like my back was arched, and I had my eyes closed. Not that I was going up in the air, but—I can’t exactly describe it. And I was blabbering, and kept blabbering, because I was filled with the Holy Spirit. I could hear the people gathering around me. They had seen this before. I could feel them ministering to me, touching me. Talking to me. Protecting me.”
After this amazing revelation, though, he “came down” and suddenly felt a rush of wild emotions.
“I was slobbering, and I was crying. I felt embarrassed because I didn’t know exactly what had happened. I hadn’t experienced it before, or even seen it. Growing up I’d seen members of the church jumping and running up and down the aisles and alla that. But this scared me. It was too powerful. It was too much. It was too much.”
After that experience, Washington noted that he now fully understands that God is real.
“I know now. God is real. God is love. God is the only way. God is the true way. God blesses. It’s my job to lift God up, to give Him praise, to make sure that anyone and everyone I speak to the rest of my life understands that He is responsible for me. When you see me, you see the best I could do with what I’ve been given by my lord and savior. I’m unafraid. I don’t care what anyone thinks. See, talking about the fear part of it—you can’t talk like that and win Oscars. You can’t talk like that and party. You can’t say that in this town”.
“I’m free now,” he added.
But he also said he understands that God and religion are not easily accepted in the fabric of Hollywood.
“It’s not talked about in this town. It’s not talked about,” he said, adding, “It’s not fashionable. It’s not sexy. But that doesn’t mean people in Hollywood don’t believe.”
Washington admitted that he does not know how many actors or others in the entertainment industry are believers. “So I don’t know how many other actors have faith. I didn’t do no poll. How would I find that out? I mean, there’s no Church Actor Meetings I’ve been to,” he explained.
The Gladiator II star has most certainly proven to be unafraid to speak in opposition to the usual, left-wing Hollywood narrative. For instance, in 2022 he scolded Hollywood liberals for using racial issues like a weapon, and said “diversity shouldn’t be mentioned like it’s something special.”
Also, in 2021 he spoke strongly against the left’s anti-cop movement and insisted that he does not care for people who put down the police and the soldiers who sacrifice their lives so we have the freedom to complain.
But his religious ideals have been the subject of some of his strongest comments. He has often praised God and included his religious ideals in his work and his personal outlook on life. Washington did not just toss off these lines in his Esquire biography to sound cool, defiant, or trendy. He lives them.
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