family is important to you
why is family so important to society
hmm
i think
the universal stems from the specifics
so i'll talk about my family
you know i have a god-fearing loving
faithful wife
who has taught me so much about family
i'm from a broken home
seeing her consistency
in in in really running the household
while i'm out hunting
you know and and and
understanding
the importance
of family and you know
i protect her i love her and i provide
for her and and
about 800 other ones all the rest of
them
but that's my job but i
you know the the
they talk about the roles we have with
no but that doesn't mean one role is
more important yes i'm the bread winner
but
my children
are winners because of my wife
and the type of house she's established
in uh so she's the type of home she is
so she's a nurturer but
you play an important role because you
subscribe to traditional family in terms
of the mom the dad husband and wife
uh
and you talk about your own brokenness
and woundedness that you came from and
many men
are broken you know suffering from
either
absentee father or
not a great relationship
with their father
and
there are
many men tens of thousands of men who
are going to be watching this
who
look at you and the work that you've
done in films
and
you become a hero and heroes are
important to us
they elevate us they inspire us they
give us hope
but there is a common theme
about manhood
that comes through your films
an expression of redemption sacrifice
and salvation
liberation is that intentional
march 27 1975 a
prophet named ruth greene prophesied
that i would travel the world and preach
to millions of people
i was flunking out i had flunked out of
college i was in my mother's beauty shop
and she kept looking at me in the mirror
and every time i looked up she was
looking at me so she wrote it down i
still have a piece of paper i've told
this story before
she didn't say you're going to be an
actor she didn't say you're going to
make you know a movie you make million
dollars and all that make a long story
long
i was filled with the holy spirit
it just wasn't
ready
going back to your question
rationalize
justified if you will
what i was doing by speaking through my
work
i asked the pastor uh uh uh bishop blake
i said well do you think you know i told
him that story i don't know how many
years ago you think i should be a pastor
what she told she said no he said no you
have your
pulpit
so
i always looked for that
for lack of a better word angle
what's the story that the only thing i
wrote on the cover of training day was
the wages of sinner's death
i had the end of that film changed
for in order for me to justify living in
the worst way i had to die in the worst
way he died in a very small way in the
in the script
but i purposely wanted him to be knocked
down on the ground and crawl like a
snake i purposely wanted everyone in the
community to turn on him and i wanted
him to die in the most violent way
so for many many years and decades i did
that through my work and through my
philanthropy and through being a good
guy and all of those things
that's not the case anymore
what my mother said to me was denzel you
do a lot of good
but you must do good the right way
she said and you know what i'm talking
about
can't buy your way in
can't love your way in
you got to serve you got to do good the
right way so at 66 getting ready to be
67 having just buried my mother
i made a promise to her and to god
to do not just to do good to the right
way but to honor my mother and my father
by the way i live my life the rest of my
days on this earth i'm here to serve
to help
to provide
in every prayer you know the ego is
interesting you just don't know
but in every prayer all i hear is feed
my sheep
that's what god wants me to do i'm like
wait a minute what does that mean well
what i found out in the last couple of
years of hearing it that there's all
kinds of sheep
not everybody wants to go right to the
so that's why i talk to experienced
shepherds
like yourself
to do
to to help guide me so to make a long
story longer going back to your question
it can be wobbly the world has changed
what is our role as a
man
you know the the the the the john wayne
formulas
is not quite
doesn't fit right right now but uh
strength
yes i've been high up on the mountain
i've been blessed
but that's a slippery slope yeah and
it's lonely up there yeah
you know people don't know that side of
it there is this
tension
that's presented in your films between
the moral ideal
and the struggle
in the reality that we live
and
most men live in that tension
you express that so your characters go
through this transformation
so either your characters get redeemed
which i love beautifully in man on fire
where you exchange
you know your life for the life of the
young girl uh oh you've seen these
movies
this is good i'm gonna use some of this
for this
you know because it was what i redeemed
yeah so it was an act of redemption yes
i'm saying okay but the struggle you're
very you were very clear with the
struggle and men need to know that
because you're a hero to a lot of guys
man they look at you and vicariously
what is the definition of a hero well a
hero is someone that elevates your soul
by giving you a model
of the better part of us as human beings
uh well i'm here to say
men
what i played in the movies is not who i
am it's what i played
the essence of it which what you're
talking about is what i wanted to come
through
but i'm not gonna sit or stand on any
pedestal
and tell you about
what i had in mind for you or your soul
because the fact of the matter is in the
whole 40-year process i was struggling
for my own soul so you were struggling
yeah with your own still challenges yeah
struggling you were in that tension
between the ideal and the realities
right
and yet you were able to take on a role
take on a character a personality and
convey
a set of values and principles through
that character incredibly well that's
why people love the film but i think
it's important what we're hearing you
say that in spite of the character that
you were playing you had your own
personal struggles and transformation
that you're going i put it this way
training day is the easiest part i play
there's more of that in me than
cry freedom
or
even malcolm x
life has humbled me i used to say i
wanted to be the best actor in the world
when i won the second oscar i said i
wanted to be the best actor i can be
now i don't even necessarily want to be
an actor it's not my goal anymore it's
not a burning desire for me i may segue
out of it
in the next few years if not sooner
but to go all the way back to your
question
none of that
would have happened without the family
none of that
would have happened to not just my wife
but the love
i give to my children and love i give
back coaching and oh i was one of the
worst coaches i you know getting in
fights with other dads and all that you
know but i love to inspire i like that i
like seeing people do well it was so
interesting i ended up becoming an actor
because i've never been the out front
guy i just like
i like seeing people do good
you know
society is forcing success down our
throat comparative success down our
throat
you know i don't know if the bible says
it but it's it's
somewhere it says in the last days we'll
become lovers of ourselves it's in the
bible the number one photograph now is a
self
selfie yeah so all we all want to be
follow no
you know we all want to lead i should
say we want fight we want we're willing
to do anything
young ladies and young men
anything
to be
influential yeah yeah you know the
universal stems from the specific
where's your soul where's your heart
where does it start
do you want credit for it or do you want
to see the other person do well it's the
most selfish thing i've done in my life
is give
because of the joy
that i get from it i love it
i don't like it i love it
i don't know if that was my
nature for my mother taught me i
remember i was starting to be a little
successful my mom said i came i said mom
did you think she said you shut up right
where you are or people been praying for
you
grandfather's great-grandfather then she
started calling me superstar for about a
month
hey super go get that squeegee in that
bucket superstar hit them windows
superstar hey superstar come here hit
the back you know chat me clean it on
the ground feet on the ground so we that
that that unit that family i didn't do
it by myself i couldn't have done it
obviously without my mother i couldn't
have done it without my wife i couldn't
have done it without my children
who teaches you to be a man
you know but fame is a is a monster
you know and we all have
these ladders or battles of roads we
have to walk in our given lives
be you famous or
or or whoever's out there listening we
all have our individual challenges
it's cliche money don't make it better
it don't
it
fame just magnifies the problems
and the opportunities what do you say to
these the men around the world who who
are watching this interview
from someone who is their hero
regardless of its from the screen
thank you
stay on your knees
watch me but listen to god don't listen
to me i hope that the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart are
pleasing in god's sight but they're i'm
human i'm just like you
you know
what i have will not keep me on this
earth for one more day
i never looked at things as problems i
look at them as opportunities maybe look
maybe that's something i can say
you know someone i would she did this
and i well what an opportunity you have
yeah
yeah with the world you know because
they said this and then said that yeah
well well what an opportunity you have
to make a difference because you never
know who's watching i think you gave
formula this is called the better man
event and i think you gave somewhat of a
formula
to be a better man
i mean taking all the things that you've
said into consideration the life that
you live the transparency the
vulnerability
um all that speaks volumes to who you as
who you are as a person
uh but we need
goals we need models we need heroes
and dreams without goals
digest dreams come on and ultimately
they fuel disappointment exactly on the
road
to achieving your dreams you must apply
this all comes from pastor bernard i
just stole it it sounds familiar
you must apply discipline
but more importantly
consistency because without commitment
you'll never start but without
consistency
you'll never finish
these are all things i learned from you
so
the position i have the money i have the
stardom i have the joy that we're paying
or whatever i've given to people through
the films that i've done
don't make me
any better
leave room to learn
i'm gonna say something a line from one
of your films uh-oh
you gonna act it or you just gonna say
it i'm gonna say it okay my man mama
about frank
frank lucas frank lucas
there it is yes thank you