Spike Lee believes Denzel Washington, not Al Pacino, deserved an Oscar in 1993: ‘No disrespect to my brother'
Filmmaker Spike Lee, who premiered his new film Highest 2 Lowest at the Cannes Film Festival, believes his friend and frequent collaborator Denzel Washington deserved an Oscar for his role in Malcolm X over Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman. (Also Read: 'Don't put your hands on me': Furious Denzel Washington lashes out at photographer on Cannes red carpet in ugly spat)
Directed by Lee, Malcolm X was released in 1992 and featured Denzel as African-American activist Malcolm X, an influential civil rights activist who was assassinated at the age of 39 in 1965. Lee said the actor deserved an Academy Award for his performance in 1993 than Al Pacino, who won the Best Actor award for his role in the film Scent of a Woman.
"Malcolm X, what he did with that film was amazing. And no disrespect to my brother Al Pacino, I love him. But Denzel, in my opinion, should have won," Lee said at the Cannes press conference. Washington eventually won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in Training Day (2001).
The 68-year-old filmmaker, however, said he doesn't measure success in awards. "With these awards, it's like basketball, where the ref blows a call and you have to make a call. So the make a call I think was Training Day, which he won an Oscar for. But we don't do our work for awards, which are nice, but it's the work that is going to stand above all awards," he said.
Lee's Highest 2 Lowest is a modern take on Akira Kurosawa's High and Low and stars Denzel as a music executive, and has generated a lot of buzz at the Cannes Film Festival, where it screened out of competition.
Highest 2 Lowest marks the fifth collaboration between Lee and Denzel. They have previously collaborated on Mo' Better Blues (1990), Malcom X, He Got Game (1998) and Inside Man (2006).
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