LONDON, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) — Multi-award-winning actor Denzel Washington has sparked retirement rumors after saying he needs to be inspired by a filmmaker to take on a project as there are “very few films left” that would interest him enough to go on a film set.
The star of “The Equalizer,” whose career spans more than 40 years in film, television and theater, said Ridley Scott was a big draw to join the cast of the director’s “Gladiator II.”
In the upcoming film, Washington plays Macrinus, a power broker under whose tutelage Lucius (Paul Mescal), grandson of former Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and son of Lucilla, decides to fight as a gladiator.
“I have very few films left to do that interest me, and I have to be inspired by the filmmaker, and Ridley inspired me enormously,” Washington, 69, told Empire magazine.
“Gladiator II,” the follow-up to Scott’s 2000 hit “Gladiator” starring Russell Crowe, reunites the master director with Washington after the 2007 action thriller “American Gangster.”
“We had a great first opportunity and here we are. He’s engaged. He’s excited about life and his next movie. He’s an inspiration. We should all want to feel like that at 86,” the actor added.
Washington made his film debut in 1981 in Michael Schultz’s “Carbon Copy,” in which he played the role of Roger Porter alongside George Segal, Susan Saint James and Jack Warden.
The actor, considered one of the best actors of the 21st century, went on to star in films such as “Glory,” “Training Day,” “Remember the Titans,” “Malcolm X,” “The Equalizer” franchise and “Fences.”
The story of “Gladiator II” takes place two decades after the events of the original film.
The film, which is scheduled for release in November, tells the story of an adult Lucius living in the region of Numidia in North Africa, where his mother, Lucilla, sent him to stay away from the Roman Empire. However, events that are taking place force him to return to Rome as a gladiator.
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