Ethan Hawke recalls Denzel Washington’s words at 2002 Oscars

Ethan Hawke revealed Denzel Washington’s words of wisdom during 2002 Oscars.

Hawke was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Training Day at 2002, but he didn’t win the award.

During an interview on Max’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? series, Hawke said that his co-star Washington, who won Best Actor that same evening, shared some words of wisdom with him.

Washington told Hawke, “It’s better that you didn’t win. Losing was better.”

Hawke praised Washington’s approach, stating, “You don’t want an award to improve your status. You want to improve the award’s status. That’s the way he thinks.”

He expressed immense admiration for Washington, referring to him as possibly the greatest actor of their generation.

“You know how he thought about various pitchers. But what creates that is a tremendous amount of energy and thought, right, what creates those moments and once you see somebody working that way, it is like entrance there’s all these other rooms that you can go into in the profession. And that was really inspiring to me to see my chosen profession done at that level,” he said.