Denzel Washington plays Macbeth who transcends age and skin color

Denzel Washington, who plays Macbeth, is 67, and Lady Macbeth, who plays him opposite, plays Frances McDormand, 64, who might look too old to be given the heir to their kingdom.

The couple are tired, they are older, told AFP Denzel Washington, explaining that the time he escapes plays a big role in this version, pushing the characters toward evil and madness.

[Les deux personnages] Like this: our time has come. It is our right. He continues, give it to us. In an extreme case, extreme measures. And the clock is ticking.

An actor who encounters sword-in-hand enemies twice during the film, would he have interpreted this character differently 20 or 30 years ago?

I would probably have been more physical. Without being condition-bound, my knees are at this point in my lifeHe said smiling.

Black actors: outdated, but not new

Of course, Denzel Washington is black, as is actor Corey Hawkins, who plays his opponent, Macduff. Although it is quite anachronistic for a story supposedly set in eleventh-century Scotland, this detail is nothing new for the adaptation of Macbeth.

For example, Orson Welles presented a version of the play in 1936 whose heroes were all black. “We’re obviously diverse, and I think that’s a great thing,” Denzel Washington said during a press roundtable. In my humble opinion, we shouldn’t even be at the point where we have to mention diversity as something special., notice.

These guys – black, white, blue, green, whatever – are so talented and qualified, that’s what they’re here for.Actor insists.

I can’t change this skin. I can’t change this hair. I can’t change that. But what I can do is be excellent where people didn’t expect me, adds Corey Hawkins. We didn’t think in terms of black and white, Confirms.

black and white film

Director Joel Coen chose to shoot his film in black and white, with a nearly square aspect ratio, which was used at the end of the silent film era, and streamlined sound effects that lend the film its Hollywood aesthetics for the first time.

repeatedly, Macbeth It has been adapted for the big screen, including by legendary directors such as Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa or Roman Polanski.

Denzel Washington swears he never saw any of these versions, and even deliberately avoided them, to avoid having to say so to himself. Damn, how could I be better than that?.

I didn’t want it to affect what I was going to get out of it, so I entered with a new eye and my imagination., explains the actor, whose Macbeth develops gently and meticulously at first before pouring into anger, ambition, and then madness.

This is not Denzel Washington’s first Shakespeare. game Julius Caesar On Broadway and in the movie Too much hype for nothing (Much Ado About Nothing) De Kenneth Brana.

Corey Hawkins in “The Tragedy of Macbeth”

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Photo: Alison Rosa / Apple TV +

Corey Hawkins hopes that children from diverse backgrounds will also want to rub shoulders with Shakespeare after seeing them in the film. It might pique their curiosity, He said.

Yes, blacks love Shakespeare. Corey Hawkins points out that it’s possible that we love Shakespeare without knowing him because there are a lot of Shakespeare references in songs and culture that we love. It belongs to us as much as it does to others.