From Hollywood To Broadway

Say "Denzel" and most people know you are talking about one of the highest paid and most popular actors in Hollywood.

But 30 years ago, Denzel Washington was just another unknown, struggling New York actor. Now, he's playing the lead in a Broadway play and making standard union wages, a fraction of what he'd make in Hollywood.

talked to Washington recently, five years after he first interviewed the Academy-Award winning actor for 60 Minutes.

"I was looking in the mirror, and I saw a woman sitting across the room from me. And she said to my mother, 'Bring me a piece of paper.' She said, 'I have a prophecy.' This is the God's honest truth. I got the piece of paper, and I keep it with me all the time. And she wrote down -- she says, 'This boy is going to speak to millions of people,'" said Washington, back in 2000.

"I don't talk about that a lot. But I've kind of felt like, 'Well, maybe I have some job to do.'"

That prediction, Washington now says, took place 30 years ago. "And then, I started acting that fall," recalls Washington. "So it's kind of interesting, coming back now 30 years later, about 20 blocks from where I started."

Washington's career began on the obscure stage at New York's Fordham University. Today, he is headlining on Broadway, appearing in a modern-day production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." He plays Brutus, one of the leaders of a plot to kill Caesar.

Why did he decide to do this play now? "I thought it was a great opportunity to get back on the stage, to get back to my roots. I get so few opportunities to get on the stage, so when I do, I really like tackling Shakespeare, which is the toughest and the most rewarding," says Washington. "I mean, it took me 30 years, but I finally am doing what I wanted to do when I started."

"The actors I started with in college, we were all snobs," adds Washington. "And we thought we would, you know, make $600 a week on Broadway or whatever it was back then. We didn't think about going to Hollywood. That was some -- Hollywood. You didn't do that."

But Washington did, and it is his acting in those Hollywood movies that has made him a household name. He's been in more than 30 feature films, and has won two Academy Awards: best supporting actor for his portrayal of a runaway slave in the film "Glory," and best actor in 2002 for his performance as dirty cop Alonzo Harris in "Training Day."

His name has become synonymous with Hollywood box office blockbusters. Most recently, he played Maj. Ben Marco in a remake of "The Manchurian Candidate."

Washington has starred in seven films since he last spoke to Bradley.

"That's a lot of work," says Bradley.

"Is it?" asks Washington. "I mean, work is like, you know, garbage man is work. Acting is not work. Acting is a privilege and it's a craft, and all of those things. But it's not work."

"You get $20 million a film now?" says Bradley. "I heard you make that kind of money, too," says Washington, laughing.

"I'm not there yet," says Bradley.

In 2002, in the film, "Antwone Fisher," Washington played a Navy psychiatrist counseling a troubled sailor. He was also the film's director.

Did he enjoy directing? "Absolutely," says Washington. "I'm going to do it again."

Does he prefer acting to directing, or does he like to do both? "I look at Clint Eastwood as the model," says Washington. "I like the way he's doing things. And that's how I'd like to do it. Just segue right into more and more filmmaking."

A Hollywood director's chair is a long way from where Washington grew up, in Mount Vernon, a working-class suburb outside New York City. His mother, Lennis, managed a beauty shop, and his father, Denzel Sr., was a Pentecostal preacher who held down two other jobs.

Washington went to church every Sunday, but dreamed of becoming a professional athlete. He says he spent all of his free time at what was then the Boys Club: "I lived here. My mother would have to come get me."

"So you had a time when you had to come home?" asks Bradley.

"9 p.m., man. I had it all timed," says Washington. "I knew how to get to the fish market by 8:54 p.m., and by the chicken joint by 8:56 p.m., in order to make it home by 9 p.m."

Did his mother ever have to come looking for him? "She did. She would. We were in the park and she came. And they were like, 'Aw, De, your mom's here.' And I got in the car. And she was screaming," recalls Washington. "So I kind of look at everybody out the window, like, you know, 'I got this.' As I was turning around, 'Pow.' So I put my head under the dashboard. 'Just drive, ma, just drive.'"

Washington says his mother saved his life when she scraped together enough money to send him to Oakland Academy, a small boarding school for boys in upstate New York. He hadn't been back there for 20 years, and was surprised to see his old school being converted into condominiums.

"Man, it looks so little now," says Washington. "My God."

Washington was 14 when he attended Oakland Academy, and he was only one of a handful of African-American students. How did he end up there?

"I was in public school, Mount Vernon High School, and my mother decided it was best to get me out of there before I ended up where a lot of my friends are now -- you know, in the grave, in the penitentiary," says Washington. He says he wasn't a bad kid at school, but he became "angrier as time went along."

What was he angry about? Washington asked Bradley to walk with him to the mess hall, where an unforgettable meeting he once had with his mother took place.

"They told me, 'Your mother's here.' And I said, 'My mother's here? ... Oh gee, what did I do?' I did something wrong," recalls Washington.

"She said, 'Your father and I aren't together anymore. You're going to be with me. You know, I don't know what I'm going to do, but we're going to work it out.' So this is where I found out my parents were getting divorced, right here."

"I think I started getting in a little trouble after that. Started getting in fights," adds Washington, who says he remembers that conversation like it was yesterday.

Washington was almost kicked out of school, too, but his mother talked the headmaster into giving her son another chance.

"I owe her everything," says Washington.

Washington made the most of his second chance, building a career that has brought him riches, fame, and critical acclaim. So why would an actor who makes millions for one movie risk his reputation by taking a role that pays $1,700 dollars a week?

"It's like retooling," says Washington about his life on stage. "The lights come up or the curtain goes up and it's an actor's medium and stage. And, you know, it's flying by the seat of your pants. You gotta keep going. It's life. Things happen."

"We're still going through things," adds Washington. "Things fall. Lights don't work. You forget lines or whatever happens. And that's good. That's good exercise."

"Cell phones go off?" asks Bradley.

"Cell phones go off. You know, one of these days, I'm going to respond to it in iambic pentameter," says Washington, laughing. "'Answereth that, my lord. My lord, it is for you.'"

This production of "Julius Caesar" has traded ancient Rome's togas and tunic's for suits and ties and camouflage. It is set in modern times, and it's intended to be evocative of power struggles in cities like Washington or Baghdad.

What makes the play relevant today? "It's [the] 'What ifs?' We do have leaders in the world that think they're Gods," says Washington. "And it's not just governments. It's corporations. You know, unfortunately not a lot has changed. I think it's a part of the human condition."

"Julius Caesar" opened on Broadway two weeks ago to mixed reviews. But Washington says reviews don't affect him because he doesn't read them. The show is nearly sold out for his scheduled 112 performances that will run until June – and these are performances that give him something he doesn't get in Hollywood.

"How do you feel at the end of a performance?" asks Bradley.

"Thankful. You know, I run off stage, I wipe the makeup off, I say a quick prayer," says Washington. "I hear the people out there, clapping. You get a sense. Uh-oh. Is it two bows tonight? Is it one? Is it three? You know? And relief. You know. Joy. You don't get that in the movies, making movies. All the feelings I'm getting night after night. I mean, people are, like, 'Man, you got a hundred to go.' But I'm, like, 'Yeah.' I'm enjoying every one of them."