He Got Game

Denzel Washington strides into a hotel suite clad in casual black. The only contrast is a pair of white sneakers thrown on after a quick workout in the ring. Washington has just returned from boxing, a sport he enjoys.

"I'm boxing with a real trainer. I mean the real deal. We spar and do everything," he says. "The mental aspect of it makes you learn so much more."

Washington, 42, springs from the sofa after answering a few questions about his new movie, He Got Game, and throws a few punches. He laughs, possibly at his own spontaneity, and sits down again.

He grew up playing pickup basketball games in the projects of Mount Vernon, N.Y., and his outlook on athletics defines his work as an actor. Like boxing, much of acting is a mental game. It's not just how hard you punch, but the preparation it takes to get there.

Washington learned to play the trumpet eight years ago for his role in Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues. He added weight to his usual 195 pounds to play an alcoholic soldier in Courage Under Fire. For Lee's He Got Game, opening Friday, Washington let his normally close-cropped hair grow long.

And boxing? Sure, it's a fitness thing, but he's also preparing to play Ruben Hurricane Carter, the boxer who spent 20 years in prison for a murder conviction that was eventually overturned.

Washington stars as Jake Shuttlesworth in He Got Game, a movie about a father, his son and basketball.

Jake's son, Jesus (played by the NBA's Ray Allen), is the nation's top high school basketball player and must choose whether to play college basketball or head straight to the pros.

Jake is serving time in prison for murdering his wife, but he gains a temporary release from the governor with one catch: He can earn early parole if he persuades Jesus to pick the governor's alma mater.

"Denzel's a great artist," Lee says of Washington, who has been in three of Lee's films, including Malcolm X, for which he received an Academy Award nomination.

"And there are no basketball doubles in this film. Uh-uh. No camera tricks. Denzel can play," Lee says.

The movie is ostensibly about basketball, yet its main focus is on the strained relationship between Jake and Jesus. Before he is sent to prison, Jake is a demanding father pushing and taunting his son, all for basketball's sake.

While Jake's family is far different than Washington's, the role still caused him to reflect on his own fatherhood.

"With all the father-son stuff, I actually got a little misty," said Washington, who has four children.

"I'm very involved," he says of parenting. He has coached basketball and football and makes Los Angeles his home so his kids can be where he works.

It's a far different approach from what Washington experienced growing up. "My father wasn't into athletics. He was a minister. We had no days like that."

He offers little more when asked about is relationship with his father. His parents divorced when Washington was 14.

Washington talks with a cadence in his voice, and listens with his hand pressed against his temple, his brown eyes appearing rich with memories. Yet, while seemingly open, he is selective in providing details on his life.

He will tell you he has four children, "teen-agers down to 7 years old" but does not give names or exact ages. He says he and his wife, Pauletta Pearson, are building a new home but won't reveal where. And he speaks of being married for 15 years this June but pretends not to remember the date.

Is this an attempt to salvage some privacy while still maintaining superstar status and commanding $10 million a film?

"I think I'm normal more so than overly private," says Washington, who won an Oscar in 1990 for his supporting role as a runaway slave turned union soldier in Glory. He also was nominated for Cry Freedom in 1988.

"I am just trying to raise kids and do what you are supposed to do. I would not want to be considered 20 years from now the most whatever as an actor like the sexiest man alive and then have the kids be screwed up.

"I wasn't raised like that. My wife wasn't raised like that. So we keep it basic and drive them to school, feed them and do whatever else you should do as a parent."

He recalls a recent visit by the architect of his new home. One of Washington's kids fell down and ran straight into his wife's arms for comfort.

"He (the architect) said, `Denzel, I've done houses where that child runs right past the mother (and) straight to the nanny. Denzel, that's a different kind of house."

Washington is quick to give credit to his actress wife, whom he met in 1977 on the set of Wilma, the television movie about track star Wilma Rudolph, in which Pearson had a minor role.

"My wife does the majority of the work. She has these kids rooted in a strong spiritual base. They say their prayers. They say grace before every meal."

Although Washington is one of Hollywood's most sought-after actors, it doesn't seem to have hit him yet.

"I never got into it to be a movie star," says Washington, who cut his usual acting fee in half so Lee could afford him for He Got Game. It is not Washington, but Lee, who offers this detail.

Washington began acting in theater while attending Fordham University in New York City. His big break came in 1982 when he landed the role of Dr. Chandler on television's St. Elsewhere. Films like Glory, Philadelphia and The Pelican Brief followed.

"I thought I might make $500 one day on Broadway," says Washington, who will collaborate with Glory director Edward Zwick to play an FBI agent in his next film.

He says his successes don't have to change his life or standards. While often labeled as sexy, he manages to avoid doing gratuitous nude scenes.

"Do you have to take ll your clothes off to be sexy?" Washington asks. "You had huge sex symbols in the '30s, '40s, '20s and '50s and they never took their clothes off."

Asked whether he has struggled more than other actors or if Hollywood's attitude toward color has changed since he started acting, he is hesitant to answer.

"I don't concern myself so much with that," Washington said. "I look at whether we are at a good place in this world. Are we taking care of this place? I'm much more concerned with those kinds of questions than the industry I happen to be in."

Still, Washington has career worries like anyone else.

"I have fears. I'm a human being. I don't think success makes you fearless. It probably makes you more paranoid. ... You're only as good as your last film. Isn't that what they say?"

By CYNTHIA L. WEBB= ^Associated Press Writer=