Sweating it out in Out of Time

Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington expands his range in yet another cop movie

Making love to Denzel Washington isn't the worst thing that can happen to a woman, but according to the Oscar-winning actor they're perhaps the hardest scenes to shoot.
"I know they hate it," smiles the 48-year-old heartthrob. " I feel very protective of my leading ladies. Cynda Williams [Mo' Better Blues], Sarita Choudhury [Mississippi Masala], Milla Jovovich [He Got Game] now Sanaa Lathan [Out of the Time] and even Eva Mendes [Out of Time], and I always feel for the woman, I feel sort of protective.
"I remember with Sarita, even though it was a woman director, Mira Nair, it always seems like the guys have something to do in the room that day. 'I just have to do something...' I'd say 'Get out!' There's nothing sexy about it. It's real acting because it's me, Sanaa and 100 of our closest friends with microphones and they're saying 'be sexy, now go, take 40' and that's tough."
Washington explains one such scene in Out of Time: "There's a shot where we kick through the bathroom door and the camera comes around and meets us on the other side, and I'm ready, I've been lifting weights to try to look sexy. I'm lifting her [Lathan], and take one and doing it, and by take 18, she's not that light anymore, my shoulders are out of socket by then; take 21 and I'm beat, even if she is 100 pounds. That scene was one of the toughest."
Poor Denzel. We'd love to help soothe his pain...
But work on Out of Time wasn't just sex games and play. Set in Miami and directed by Carl Franklin (Devil in the Blue Dress), the drama centres on Banyan Key, Florida chief of police Matt Lee Whitlock (Washington). Whitlock is respected by his peers and loved by his community, but when Banyan Key is shocked by a double homicide, everything he thought he knew starts to unravel, and he finds himself in a race against time to solve the murders before he himself falls under suspicion. Mendes plays his estranged wife and Lathan a new love interest.
The original script had the setting as Buffalo, New York, but producers decided to sexy up the tale but placing it in sultry hot Miami, Florida.
"I would've taken Buffalo in the summer time over Miami any day," laughs Washington. "Florida was mean, the bugs... those bugs were terrible. It pissed you off, the sweat and the heat were part of it, it was like it was a character in the film. They have these bugs called noseeums, you can't see them. But the heat was mean, it drains your energy, the humidity and heat, and you can't see the bugs when you're shooting. These are educated championship bugs; even if you're smoking, they come by and they have little cigarettes themselves, they have many years of experience in dodging smoke. (laughs) We had scenes with smoke and it didn't work."
And if the bugs and heat weren't enough to exhaust the actors and crew, there was always the stench of garbage and fish to settle their stomachs.
"It was probably the most difficult film I've ever made when it comes to discomfort," admits the actor. "We were in Homestead, Florida where the shrimp or fishing boats go out, and we were near a sanitation dump because it stunk all the time, and alligators or caymans are always in the water. Sanaa and I are doing a scene and I'm on my back, and she's just about to shoot me, and there's rain so we're really drenched. So after the scene, I go upstairs on the top deck to get away from it all, to regroup and get where I need to be, and I have towels all over me. There must have been about 10 mosquitoes on me, and they sting you on your eyes. But by then, I didn't care, that's how exhausted and pissed off we were."
Although Franklin had worked with Washington before on Devil in a Blue Dress, there were some concerns about the actor wanting to take on another cop role following Training Day two years ago.
"Carl told me he was actually worried about sending [the script] to me," says Washington. "He thought I liked things that have more weight and this piece is pretty much pure entertainment. And at the time I was making [directorial debut] Antwone Fisher, so I really couldn't pay attention to anything at the time. I wasn't really that easy to get a hold of, and all I wanted to do was finish the film."
Indeed, Washington admits that he needed some convincing to take on the role of Matt Lee Whitlock and that in the end he accepted because he needed little preparation for the part. "The only preparation I did was I swam and I went fishing," he smiles.
Like we said, poor Denzel...

Out of Time is currently playing in local cinemas.

Publication Date: 2003-10-19
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=3261