Outspoken Christian actor Denzel Washington recently dismissed concerns about cancel culture and awards, saying he follows God rather than public opinion or accolades.
In an interview with Complex News, the 70-year-old two-time Academy Award winner was asked if he feared being “canceled.”
“What does that mean — to be canceled?” Washington responded.
When the interviewer explained that it meant “you lose public support,” Washington shot back, “Who cares?”
“What made public support so important to begin with?” he added, while promoting his latest film, “Highest 2 Lowest,” alongside director Spike Lee.
The interviewer pressed further, noting that “followers now are currency.” Washington, who was baptized and officially received his ministry license last year, wasn’t convinced.
“I don’t care who’s following who,” he said. “You can’t lead and follow at the same time, and you can’t follow and lead at the same time. I don’t follow anybody. I follow the heavenly spirit. I follow God, I don’t follow man. I have faith in God. I have hope in man, but look around, it ain’t working out so well.”
The actor said the entire idea of cancel culture didn’t apply to him.
“You can’t be canceled if you haven’t signed up. Don’t sign up,” Washington said, stretching his arms and laughing as he told Lee, “Don’t get me started. You know, chest is getting tight talking about it.”
In a separate conversation with journalist Jake Hamilton on Jake’s Takes, Washington dismissed the importance of the Oscars, despite his 10 nominations and two wins, saying his only concern is pleasing God.
“I don’t do it for Oscars,” he said. “I really don’t care about that kind of stuff.”
He went on: “I’ve been at this a long time, and there’s times when I’ve won, shouldn’t have won, didn’t win, should have won. Man gives the award. God gives the award. I’m not that interested in Oscars. People say, ‘Well, where do you keep it?’ I say, ‘Next to the other one.'”
“I’m not bragging. I’m just telling you how I feel about it. On my last day, it ain’t going to me a bit of good,” he said.
Washington has been outspoken about his faith throughout his career; his father, the Rev. Denzel Hayes Washington Sr., was a Pentecostal minister, and his mother, Lennis, was heavily involved in church activities.
In a November 2024 essay for Esquire, the actor revealed he grew up in the church, but after witnessing altar calls and “people being saved,” he “didn’t really know” what was happening when he was young.
The “biggest moment” of his life happened at the West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles, which he was turned onto by actor and director Robert Townsend, he said.
“Things I said about God when I was a little boy, just reciting them in church along with everybody else, I know now,” he said in the essay. “God is real. God is love. God is the only way. God is the true way. God blesses.”
He added, “It’s my job to lift God up, to give Him praise, to make sure that anyone and everyone I speak to the rest of my life understands that He is responsible for me.”
Washington added that he was “unafraid” of the public’s reaction to his faith, adding, “I don’t care what anyone thinks.”
In a 2021 interview with The Christian Post, Washington shared how, in a society rife with division and destructive content, he wants to highlight stories that exemplify true sacrifice, faith and heroism.
“In this day and age, you know, it’s tough,” the Academy Award-winner told CP. “There’s so many negative influences out there; social media, obviously, all the obvious ones, but the enemy is the enemy. So we are affected by what’s outside of us, but it magnifies or accelerates what’s really inside of us.”
“We’re such a divided country right now,” he added. “We are the United States, in theory, not so much in practice. But in theory.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
