It's been a dozen years since the actor Denzel Washington and the director Antoine Fuqua rode the corrupt detective Alonzo Harris and their Los Angeles crime odyssey, Training Day, to Oscar glory for the former and a Hollywood breakthrough for the latter.
“You look up, I didn’t realise it was 12 years,” says Washington. “That’s quick. That’s too fast.”
In The Equalizer – a very loose adaptation of the 1980s American television drama – Washington and Fuqua have teamed up again, resuming a potent actor-director relationship.
The film, released today, has also kick-started more collaborations. They are planning a Magnificent Seven remake – "You don't get many shots at a Western," says Washington with a smile – and are interested in working on a sequel to The Equalizer.
You might expect the pair to have an easy-going congeniality, ready to build on the success of their partnership. You would be wrong.
“You don’t overthink it,” says Washington, who is not prone to brooding or rumination. “You just do. It does, so do.”
Washington plays a widower living a spartan life in Boston. He works at a hardware store and every night drinks tea at a diner. But when one of the other regulars, a prostitute played by Chloë Grace Moretz, gets involved with the Russian mafia, his buried proficiency with violence is reawakened.
Washington’s intensity is the dominant force between him and his director, as it would perhaps be in any pairing involving the veteran actor.
"You work with somebody who's always challenging you and himself, and just wants you to be the best," says Fuqua, whose credits since Training Day have included the White House action movie Olympus Has Fallen, the vigilante thriller Shooter and the period adventure King Arthur.
“Even if it’s challenging, that’s what brings the best out of you.”
It’s that pressurised tension that seems to most fuel Washington and Fuqua’s collaboration. They are, tellingly, amateur boxers and share the same trainer. They are eager to talk about the previous night’s fight. Boxing metaphors pepper the conversation.
"You go into the ring, you're going in to get it in," says Fuqua, whose next film is the boxing drama Southpaw, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. "It's the same thing with making a movie. You're going in there to put the work in, do something with some intensity – a little grit."
Washington, then, is a bit like a prizefighter emerging from his trailer, ready to spar.
“You say you’re ready, then I’m coming out and here we go,” he says of his mindset going into a scene. “Get in the ring and start throwing punches.”
Though he doesn’t look it, Washington will turn 60 in December. It’s now clear that his movies with Fuqua will be definite – if interrupted – chapters in his career.
“I’ve worked with Jonathan Demme twice, Ed Zwick three times, Spike [Lee], I think, four times and Tony Scott five times,” says Washington. “There are people I’m comfortable with who know what they’re doing, so it makes my job easier. It’s a good collaboration and we’ve had good results.”