Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images(LAS VEGAS) — Denzel Washington’s son, John David Washington, has been following in his father’s footsteps since he was nine years old, when he appeared in his father’s 1992 film, Malcolm X.
With his upcoming film, BlacKkKlansman, hitting theaters this summer, the younger Washington is reflecting on his first role, and the best advice that his Oscar-winning father ever gave to him.
“[He told me to] study, you’re always learning,” Washington told Yahoo! at CinemaCon. “You gotta be a professional. So that’s what I’m always searching [for].
According to Washington’s dad, being an actor is more than just a job.
“This is a privilege, what we get to do. To be able to tell stories. It’s a luxury,” John David says, recalling his father’s advice. “So I have a businesslike approach to it, the same way I had with football. But I embrace how much fun it is, and the people I get to meet and create with and learn from. I’m always learning. It’s a growing and evolving art, and you can only get better with age.”
Now, more than twenty years after his appearance in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, where he appeared as a young child in a classroom, Washington will reunite with Lee for BlacKkKlansman, where he plays the title role of Ron Stallworth, a black police detective who infiltrated the KKK.
BlacKkKlansman is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May before opening in theaters August 10.
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