The day before Denzel Washington called had been a good one for him.
Early morning brought news of Golden Globe nods from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. His portrayal of ’70s drug lord Frank Lucas in “American Gangster” snatched a best-actor nomination.
“The Great Debaters,” a rousing, uplifting period tale of underdog tenacity, is in the running for a best- picture Oscar amid an impressive, if crowded, field of dramas, including the Ridley Scott-directed gangster drama.
That’s nice news for the lead actor in “Debaters” — Washington, who plays professor and poet Melvin B. Tolson.
It’s even better news for its director — you got it — Washington, who began working four years ago on the film about Tolson’s debate squad, which defeated the University of Southern California’s champions (Harvard’s in the movie) in 1935, when white colleges in the Jim Crow South wouldn’t take them on.
Resolved: It is really good to be on the top of your game, a notion Washington confirmed when he called for an interview.
“It was a heck of a day,” he said. “Wake up with the Hollywood Foreign Press and end the day in little Marshall, Texas, bringing the film back where it all started. They had the red carpet and everything.”
In Marshall, a woman walked up to the actor-director and confessed the town had never seen anything like the klieg-light treatment it was receiving.
“Well, you can’t say that anymore, honey,” he told her.
Marshall, population 23,935, in the northeastern part of the state, is home to Wiley College, the historically black college founded in 1873 by Methodists. At the school they’ve started answering the phone “Wiley College: Home of the Great Debaters.”
It’s satisfying having a hand in a revitalization, Washington says. The production spruced up the campus. Money has started to come in. Enrollment is up. Washington is helping fund a 10-year program to get the debate team in fighting form.
But he was just as pleased to recount a conversation he had with the college’s president the night before. “Look, we really do need the money,” he told Washington. “And we’re happy everybody’s helping. But we’re going to keep on plugging anyway.” They’d been doing it for a hundred years, he said. “I was like, ‘Good for you, man.’ ”
“The Great Debaters” marks the second time the two-time Oscar winner (“Glory,” “Training Day”) has stepped behind the camera.
His debut effort was the lovely “Antwone Fisher,” based on a memoir about a young man full of rage and the Navy psychiatrist (Washington) who helps him find himself. For the title role, Washington cast a Sony gift shop employee by the name of Derek Luke (“Friday Night Lights” and “Catch a Fire.”)
“I really enjoy watching other people do well and supporting them,” he says. “I enjoy the collaboration. I’m the happiest guy. No matter how much money they pay you, you can get bored or stagnant with what you’re doing.”
“The Great Debaters” showcases the talents of Jurnee Smollett, who plays Samantha Booke, the first female on the debate team. It also opens audiences’ eyes to the possibilities of Nate Parker as the rough-cut, man-child Henry Lowe. But it is young Denzel Whitaker who amuses and endears as James Farmer Jr., son of the Wiley College president played by Forest Whitaker (no relation). (Farmer later became a leading civil rights activist.)
The 14-year-old is bright, dedicated and smitten by Booke, who’s a little out of his league.
At a recent Screen Actors Guild screening of the movie, a young man stood up and admitted, to the delight of the director, that the character he related to most was Farmer, “because I never get the girl either,” he said.
“I was like, man, you made my day,” recalls Washington. “I remember the girl I was in love with and she didn’t know it and I’d run to the other side of the school and act like I just happened to be there when she came by her locker. All kids go through that. That goes across the color lines.”
The issue of what does and doesn’t cross color lines is increasingly fluid — and, suggests Washington, perhaps a bit old school.
A recent installment of “Entertainment Tonight” led off with reports about “Three of America’s Biggest Stars.” Then flashed a photo of Washington, “Great Debaters” producer Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith.
There were no asterisks, no modifiers. Biggest stars, period. (That weekend Smith’s “I Am Legend” scored a walloping $77 million at the box office.)
“Look, I think it’s generational,” says Washington. “I don’t think it’s a big deal to kids. This kid who stood up and said I don’t get the girl either, he didn’t say anything about race.
“My kids, they’ve grown up with black, white, blue, green all kinds of kids and they didn’t have to go through what we had to go through. The kids in ‘The Great Debaters’ didn’t have to go through what Farmer Sr. and Tolson had to go through. That’s the point.”
Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com; also on blogs.denverpostcom/ madmoviegoer
