Here's how Denzel described their
relationship:
I didn't see him that much.
Uh, the things I did, like sports and things, he wasn't really … I guess being
a spiritual man, or just because he had to work so much, I didn't see him ….
Once [my parents] were separated, I was in school. So 70 percent of the year, I
was away. In the summer, I wasn't looking to track him down. I was ready to hit
the streets. So you just kind of fade …. Not to say that I didn't love him like
a dad. But we didn't play ball, those types of things. Next thing you know,
you're at college.Years later, Denzel flew to New York City for a film project and his brother met him at the airport. Denzel said:
The first thing I thought
was Mom died. And he said, "Dad had a stroke." That was April of '91,
and he died in August. We started shooting around the time that he died. [pauses]
I never shed a tear for my father. That sounds like a book or a song. I never
did all through the funeral and all that. There was no connection.
Michael
Hainey, "The GQ&A: Denzel Washington," GQ (October 2012)
