Denzel Washington Says Americans Are ‘Slaves To Information’

In an interview published Sunday as part of the Oscar winner’s Gladiator II media blitz, the Training Day star gave his opinion the similarities between our political climate, and the eventual fall of the Roman Empire.

While in conversation with The Sunday Times, the 69-year-old Washington noted how a quote from the upcoming Gladiator II (“Empires fall – so do emperors”) could be taken as a metaphor for the current state of American politics.

“You know, it’s so easy to stand outside America and say this and that,” Washington expressed to editor Jonathan Dean. “Turn around, you know? Pick a country. Any [country]. It’s all politics. All promises unkept. And now with the information age the way it is — if anything — left, right, whatever, had better learn how to use those tools to manipulate the people.”

Washington then recalled a line from his first movie, 1981’s Carbon Copy, that fit his take on the power imbalance between the American government and the people they’re meant to serve.

“Power to the people? Yeah, they had it once,” he reiterated. “It was called the Stone Age.”

Later in the interview, Washington claims the influx of information – and misinformation – now available to anyone with an internet connection has made us all “slaves” to what we’re being told.

“We’re all slaves to information now. We really are. We’re all slaves,” he expressed. “Whatever you feel about the leaders, like this guy’s crazy or the other one is sane, you’d better realize you’re being manipulated by both sides. Period.”

As for how we cease the manipulation, Washington had a suggestion: distraction.

“Yeah, so go to the movies,” he recommends.

Last week, as reported here on The Blast, Washington alleged that a same-sex kiss filmed for a scene in Gladiator II may have been cut due to film execs getting “cold feet” over the act.

Talking to Gayety, as transcribed by Variety, the actor stated, “I actually kissed a man in the film but they took it out, they cut it. I think they got chicken. I kissed a guy full on the lips, [but] I guess they weren’t ready for that yet.”

However, as TMZ notes, a source close to the production of Gladiator II has claimed that the lip-lock was never scripted and instead was performed during an improvised take that was being considered to be used in the film.

“The ‘kiss’ take – and other improvised takes – ended up on the cutting room floor as a story choice,” writers for TMZ explained. “No prejudice went into making the decision, we’re told.”

Notably, the kiss was said to have come moments before Maximus, Washington’s character in the film, kills his on-screen partner.

“I kill him about five minutes later,” the actor explained. “It’s Gladiator. It’s [a] kiss of death.”

Despite the follow-up to Ridley Scott’s Roman epic not hitting our shores until this Friday, the movie has already done incredibly well overseas. As Collider shares, Gladiator II has grossed around $87 million from about 63 international territories this weekend alone. Current projections predict that the movie will bring in around $75 million on our shores, giving it a solid no. 2 debut on the weekend’s box office.

Wicked, the highly anticipated big screen adaption of the Broadway classic, is being touted as the big winner for the weekend of November 22.

Even as a “king” in the acting world, Washington knows that his fans come first – even before actual royalty.

Writers at The Root relayed an eyewitness fan account from the London premiere of Gladiator II, where the actor brushed off security workers who told him King Charles had arrived, and that he needed to head inside the theaters and stop greeting fans.

Washington apparently responded, “I make my own rules,” before returning to the adoring crowd.

He did eventually head inside the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square to meet His Royal Highness, where the two shared a somewhat “awkward” greeting due to neither party knowing how to address the other.

“I didn’t know if I was supposed to grab you or not,” Washington told the monarch after giving him a handshake, as PEOPLE reports. “But it’s my pleasure.”

Charles appeared nonplussed, ultimately saying that Washington’s movie career was “fantastic.”