Denzel Washington Credits Success To Picking Roles Carefully

It's a Saturday as Denzel Washington sits in a seaside Los Angeles hotel. He's happy to talk about his latest film, "Crimson Tide," but he admits his mind is somewhere else.

"Saturday is usually the day I reserve for my kids," he says. "My 10-year-old son has a baseball game going on now, and he didn't understand why I can't be there."

Washington, 40, and his wife, actress-singer Pauletta Pearson, also have a 6-year-old daughter and 4-year-old twins, a boy and a girl.

"They're among the reasons I've chosen the films I've done recently," Washington says. "My last three films were all shot in Los Angeles, so I've been home for two years."

The actor says he learned early in his career to pick roles carefully.

"Sidney Poitier told me when I was just starting out that the first three or four films I make will determine how I'm perceived for my whole career. He advised me to hold on and take my time. I waited a full year, and got `Cry Freedom.' "

Now that he's an Oscar-winning, A-list actor, Washington says choosing projects has become even more difficult "because more offers are coming my way with a lot of money."

Turning down millions is easy if you know why you went into acting in the first place, he says.

"I've always patterned myself after the British actors. On `Much Ado About Nothing' (in which Washington starred with Kenneth Branaugh) these British actors were talking about leaving to do `King Lear' in some small theater for $200 a week. They could have waited around for a big film, but that's not the point.

"The idea is to keep working and to keep getting better," he added. "The British don't feel they have to keep topping themselves, and neither do I. It gets harder to maintain that attitude, particularly in this country, because they keep dangling bigger carrots in front of you.

"But you have to decide what you're in this for. For me, it's not the money. It never was. I never set out to meet the right people, go to the right parties and take the right roles. I just wanted to work."

What makes a role appeal to him?

"Good theater" is what he looks for. He traces it back to his childhood as the son of a minister in Mount Vernon, N.Y.

"I think there's a lot of theater going on in church. Maybe that's where a lot of actors learn things. Also, my mother owned a beauty shop, so between church and the beauty shop, phew, there was great theater around me, constantly."

Washington studied drama at Fordham University in New York City and then continued his studies at the prestigious American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. He returned to the Big Apple, where he appeared in various stage productions until he got a call from L.A.

He first caught the public eye as a physician on TV's "St. Elsewhere" in the early '80s. "A Soldier's Story," "Cry Freedom," "Glory," "The Mighty Quinn," "Mo' Better Blues," "Malcolm X," "The Pelican Brief" and "Philadelphia" are among the films that have since made him a star.

"I'm in denial about this star stuff," Washington says. "And when they say I'm a sex symbol, I can't conceive it; it doesn't have anything to do with me."

Still, it was Washington's screen presence that drew Tony Scott's attention for "Crimson Tide." He knew that the story of a power struggle needed two actors of fairly equal stature, and Washington could hold his own with Gene Hackman.

The chance to work with Hackman was a draw for Washington. He wanted "to go head to head with a true genius, Gene Hackman. These moments are why I went into acting."

"Crimson Tide" is the first of his three movies this year. Still to come are "Virtuosity" and "Devil in a Blue Dress."

"Virtuosity" is an action flick set in the future, which Washington did to please his son. "He really wanted me to do an action movie, but all that runnin' and jumpin' isn't for me. It's not my cup of tea."

"Devil in a Blue Dress" is another matter. Washington plays a major black literary figure, Easy Rawlings, the detective at the heart of a popular series of hard-boiled 1940s mystery stories by Walter Mosley.

What's next?

A possible Jackie Robinson project with Spike Lee. And, he adds, "There's a script being developed that's a sort of romance."

For now, Washington is eager for a rest. "I'm going to South Africa this summer, not to work, but just to see the people."

High on his list will be a chance to meet the widow and visit the grave of Stephen Biko, the South African leader he played eight years ago in "Cry Freedom."

Compiled from Gannett News Service and Knight-Ridder Newspapers.