How Denzel Washington Feels About The Gladiator 2 Accent Controversy

With nearly 60 films under his belt, it's easy to assume that Denzel Washington has already done it all. Sure, there are a few genres the actor hasn't totally dipped his toe into — he may never star in a Marvel movie, for example — but the 69-year-old Washington has learned to be choosy about the projects he selects nowadays. 

"There are very few films left for me to make that I'm interested in," Washington recently admitted to Empire. Ultimately, the decision boils down to the director at the helm, and that's partially what inspired him to star in the upcoming "Gladiator II." 

The film will see him reuniting with Ridley Scott, who directed him in 2007's "American Gangster." And it'll be Washington's first costume drama since "The Tragedy of Macbeth" in 2021. That should honestly be reason enough to get excited about "Gladiator," and most cinephiles understandably are. But when the first trailer dropped for the film, the internet didn't hesitate to do what it does best: nitpick. 

"Gladiator II" found itself at the center of some pretty niche controversy. Critics disparaged the trailer's anachronistic needle drop (Jay-Z and Ye's "No Church in the Wild") and Washington's lack of a period-accurate accent. Those surface-level choices shouldn't be enough to damn the film entirely, though. Ridley Scott rarely asks his actors to speak in an accent that isn't theirs, anyway. But Washington had reasons of his own to stick with his own affectation — and his response to the backlash gets to the heart of an odd expectation for period dramas.

"Gladiator II" stars Paul Mescal as Lucius, the scrappy, estranged son of Russell Crowe's Maximus (a slightly frustrating retcon of the original "Gladiator"). The film will follow his quest to get revenge against Rome and its most powerful institutions; for all his resolve, though, he can't wage this war alone. That's where Washington's Macrinus comes in. A slippery arms dealer with ambitions of his own, Macrinus becomes an unlikely champion for Lucius. Early footage teases the character living it up with the Roman elite: were it not for the stark-white togas and golden wine goblets, one would think Washington was playing a character in the present day. His character choices are relatively harmless in the grand scheme — if anything, they make "Gladiator II" feel even more epic — but what about that accent? 

Macrinus is notably based on a real-life figure. He hailed from North Africa, a locale that plays a major role in "Gladiator" and its sequel. The film's most vocal critics wasted little time pointing out that Washington should at least be attempting a "North African accent," whatever that may be. But Washington argued against that in the same interview with Empire (via ScreenRant):

"Whose accent would it be? What does that sound like anyway? You're going to end up imitating someone and end up with a bad African accent."

Washington makes a great point. It's impossible to know what any of the film's characters might have sounded like in real life, so there's not really a point in striving for an imaginary ideal. What truly matters here is the story and scale — and if initial footage is any indication, "Gladiator II" is shaping up to be an extremely worthy legasequel.