Denzel Washington sparks debate after film critic interview goes viral

The great debaters have taken to the internet to talk about Denzel Washington’s recent interview.

After the Oscar winner, 69, said he was not familiar with the work of late director Stanley Kubrick, fans were left in an online frenzy.

Washington sat down for a chat with Collider correspondent Steve Weintraub to promote his latest project, “Gladiator II,” in November and the footage is going viral.

Weintraub asked “The Equalizer” alum which of Kubrick’s films were his favorite, to which Washington responded that he “wasn’t a real film buff” around the time the late director released his signature projects.

Some of Kubrick’s most iconic movies include “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) and “A Clockwork Orange” (1971).

“I’m not a movie buff – no, I’m not a big movie fan,” Washington confessed. “I was in the street when he was making movies.”

At that time of his life, the star wasn’t in the Hollywood scene.

“I’d be the one outside looking to rob you when you came out of a Kubrick movie, okay?” Washington added.

“So I wasn’t a real film buff. I didn’t start acting until I was 20 years old and didn’t start really going to the movies until I was 20, 22, 23.”

However, Washington then clarified his statement, saying that “as a teenager, [he] went to see movies like” 1971’s “Shaft” and 1972’s “Super Fly,” which were directed by two of the most prominent Black filmmakers of the 1970s, the late father and son duo Gordon Parks and Gordon Roger Parks Jr.

Washington — who went on to win Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for “Glory” and for Best Actor in a Leading Role for “Training Day” — garnered mixed reviews from viewers.

Weintraub wore a shirt with Kubrick’s image on it during the interview, leading fans to think he was pretentious in assuming Washington had the same cultural experience with cinema.

“I’M SO GLAD DENZEL DID THIS!” one social media user wrote, per Daily Mail. “He’s definitely a movie buff, but what he was really saying was why this man thought he could ask someone like Denzel who champions Black films, to speak about a white director instead of a Black one.”

“White film critics are insufferable this way,” they continued. “The arrogance to be doing press for a film and wear a shirt by another filmmaker … to quiz the actors about that person’s filmography like they’re contestants on a game show … they position everything from their very white, and in this case white male perspective.”

Another user shared the same sentiments, suggesting that Washington was too seasoned to fall for the leading question.

“They should have known better than to try it on with Denzel, he never puts up with crap,” the fan wrote.

One social media user even suggested that Washington “probably doesn’t like any Kubrick films he’s seen but there’s no polite way to say that.”

However, some users felt it was Washington who came out of the interview appearing to have his nose turned up.

“I’m unbelievably disappointed in that answer … why does he seem so pretentious now,” one user wrote.

“So in the last 40 years he’s never seen the Shining? lol.” someone else commented, referring the 1980 classic.

Another user thought Washington was “just being difficult for the sake if being difficult,” while a third said Kubrick wasn’t out of line with his questioning.

In preparation for the late director’s 1999 thriller movie “Eyes Wide Shut,” someone called a writer at The Post, Larry Celona, in the fall of 1996, saying he was from Warner Bros. and that Kubrick wanted to talk to him.

“He’s making a movie and he needs to talk to a police reporter,” Don Buckley, a Warner V.P., said.

Weeks later, the phone rang, and the voice on the other said, “This is Stanley Kubrick.”

He then informed the reporter there was a scene in the film where Tom Cruise opens a copy of The Post to a story about a beauty queen’s drug overdose.

“How would you write the story?” he asked before faxing Celona something his office put together in order for him to do a rewrite.

It took Kubrick 15 months to shoot “Eyes Wide Shut” and his office had told Celona he could get an interview when the movie came out. However, Kubrick died in March 1999 and the movie came out in September.

As Celona put it, the last thing the director said to him was, “Thanks, we’ll be talking again.”