Avengers: Endgame star Josh Brolin has talked about a contentious moment between himself and his co-star Denzel Washington. The incident occurred while the pair were filming Ridley Scott’s American Gangster, which was released in 2007. While he was on In Depth With Graham Bensinger, the Thanos actor recalled how he put his hand on Washington, who responded by shoving his hand away and saying, “Don’t you ever put your f***ing hand on me.” The nervous, still fairly green Brolin was apparently asking for a line reading because Washington had changed the line placement shortly before they had started.
Of course, this behavior would have fit Washington’s character in American Gangster, the criminal Frank Lucas. Josh Brolin played a corrupt NYPD Detective in the film, years before his later Marvel work. Although, while tensions may have been high for a moment Brolin does go on to say that his co-star greeted him cheerfully at a later event, so the altercation was undoubtedly just a tense moment between coworkers. This comes in the middle of an interesting press cycle for Washington while promoting his film, Gladiator II, who has revealed in a deeply personal piece on Esquire that he is a decade sober after a two-bottle-a-day wine habit.
Around the time Denzel Washington quit drinking, he made the film Flight with Robert Zemeckis, and he ponders in the same piece as to whether or not shooting the film about someone with addiction issues was therapeutic. Hopefully, this new era of clean living means we will get more of Washington both in front of and behind the camera and maybe not snapping at his co-stars this time. Of course, Washington has reunited with Ridley Scott for Gladiator II, and you can read our review here.
You can see Gladiator II in theaters now.
