Denzel Washington Once Played Malcolm X Before He Joined Spike Lee's Biopic

Malcolm X is one of American history's most fascinating figures, a delinquent turned holy activist who struggled with his faith insofar as it had been misrepresented to him by Elijah Muhammad. Given that Muhammad is the man whose teachings rescued him from an aimless life of crime, the moment he realized his mentor and savior was a liar and philanderer served as a crucible for his beliefs. Would he look the other way as most of Muhammad's inner circle had, or would he break with the leader and offer followers a righteous alternative?

This is grist for great drama as we've seen in movies like "Malcolm X," "Ali" and "One Night in Miami," and it soars when directors cast the right Malcolm. And while Mario Van Peebles and Kingsley Ben-Adir did stellar work in their respective films, the role will likely forever belong to Denzel Washington, who burrowed into the life of the man and emerged with a portrayal that is both physically and spiritually on point. It isn't just the best Malcolm X portrayal you'll ever see; it's one of the best performances in the history of motion pictures.

Washington famously fueled his transformation by speaking with the leader's family, studying film of speeches, and learning as much as he could about the Muslim faith in the run-up to production. But he had more than just research at his disposal. He also had the memory of a previous portrayal of Malcolm X from earlier in his career.

In a 1992 interview with The New York Times, Washington was asked about his performance in Lawrence Holder's play "When the Chickens Came Home to Roost." Produced at the Off-Broadway Federal Theater in 1981 (a few months before Washington would make his big-screen debut in Michael Schultz's dire "Carbon Copy"), the play is a two-character back-and-forth between Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X on the eve of the latter's split with the Nation of Islam. It received a positive review from the Times' notoriously picky Frank Rich, and put the young Washington on the New York City theater map.

In the '92 interview, Washington admits that he "didn't have a view" of the activist back then, though he did, through the same kind of research he would undertake when he played the man eleven years later, have a sense of his seismic importance. Per Washington:

"I remember feeling two ways: Like this was heavy, mean stuff and also like this was helping me get some things off my chest. There was something invigorating about being able to say things you felt. I remember thinking what it must have felt like to be so free to be able to say anything. It must have made for tension."

Sadly, there is no widely available video of this production, which is what makes live theater so very special. You have to be there. And if you are lucky enough to be there, you get to go there again and again in your memory (provided the production is worth remembering). Short of that, we'll always have Spike Lee's 1992 masterpiece, which is every bit as relevant and stirring today as it was 32 years ago.