The Only Time Denzel Washington Felt Scared Shooting A Movie

When Denzel Washington committed to starring in "Training Day," it must have been a vertiginous moment for the actor. But it's not because the movie itself was a risk, or that he was concerned about his ability to play his role. Rather, this 2011 crime thriller marked the first time Washington played a bad guy — a fact that made his casting in "Training Day" surprisingly controversial. Having become a megastar, winning an Oscar, and earning the respect of audiences and his peers, Denzel suddenly found himself faced with a significant task: proving naysayers wrong by effectively portraying an on-screen villain after two decades of playing the good guy.

Luckily, the ever-capable star proved he was more than up to the task. His performance as corrupt LAPD detective Alonzo Harris is one of the greatest performances of his career and secured Washington a second Oscar win as a result. That by itself would be impressive, but when you consider what went into making "Training Day," it becomes even more unbelievable.

Rather than shooting on soundstages, director Antoine Fuqua decided to film "Training Day" on-location in Los Angeles. This is a film that takes extensive detours into some of the city's more disadvantaged neighborhoods, which meant that Fuqua and co. were essentially shooting in gang territory for much of the movie. While you might think that this added to Washington's already extensive worries, it seems the veteran star remained clear-headed throughout. In fact, he never once worried for his safety while filming "Training Day." His previous film, however, was the first and only time Denzel has actually been scared while shooting a movie.

By all accounts, Denzel Washington had a ball shooting "Training Day," going off-script and improvising his way through one of his best ever performances. At no point do you get the sense that he was intimidated by the project, his first time playing a villain, or by working with real gang members in real gang neighborhoods. The actor once told the Morning Call as much, too, when asked about the potentially dangerous shooting conditions on "Training Day." Not only did Washington state that he "never felt a sense of danger," he actually recalled how welcome he felt in LA's Imperial Courts housing project, saying:

"I met a number of [gang members] and they all said, 'Oh, you've got to meet my mom.' And the moms would come over and give me a hug and say, 'Denzel, we need to make you something to eat right now.' I did go over to one of their houses and had a nice meal. Someone told me later on, 'That was the head guy's mom. You're in over there now.'"

So, if shooting in a location notorious for its gang activity didn't phase Denzel, then what did? Well, his previous film, "The Hurricane" managed to unnerve the actor somewhat. In the 1999 biopic, Denzel played real-life boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who was wrongly convicted of murder in 1966 before being sent to prison for 20 years. It's one of Denzel Washington's most rewatchable films, and it also happens to be the one time the actor felt a real sense of danger on-set.

While "The Hurricane" is ostensibly a sports drama based on Rubin Carter's real life, most of the movie plays out in prison, where Denzel Washington's Carter spends his time trying to prove his innocence while an enterprising young Brooklynite named Lesra Martin (Vicellous Reon Shannon) commits himself to exonerating the wrongly-convicted boxer.

Much like Antoine Fuqua with "Training Day," "The Hurricane" director Norman Jewison decided that his movie would benefit from shooting on location. That meant that Denzel was placed inside East Jersey State Prison (formerly "Rahway State Prison") — the very same facility that housed Carter himself 15 years prior. While the maximum security prison no doubt lent authenticity to the film, it also managed to instill fear into the typically unflappable Washington. The actor told the Morning Call that while "Training Day" was a comparative breeze, "When we shot 'Hurricane' at the [East Jersey] State Prison [in Rahway], and they locked the doors behind me, that's when I experienced a sense of danger."

Still, it's not as if this sense of danger held back the actor, who had Rubin Carter's real example to guide him. As Washington once told the Tampa Bay Times, "This is a tough, tough man. Some of the prison guards talked about it when we were filming at Rahway [State Prison]. Those older guys told us they never broke [Rubin]. They said everybody gets broken in this penitentiary, but not him."