Spike Lee spoke warmly of his long-time working relationship and friendship with Denzel Washington in a conversation at the Red Sea Film Festival on Tuesday.
Lee is currently in post-production on Highest 2 Lowest, his latest collaboration with Washington, and their fifth film together after Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X, He Got Game and Inside Man.
“Someone pointed out to me that the last time we worked together was 18 years ago. I was surprised because it didn’t feel that way. I’m very blessed to have done five films together, he is arguably the best actor on the planet,” he said.
Lee, who also cast Washington’s son John David Washington’s son in BlacKkKlansman, suggested he shared a special bond with the actor.
“We’re brothers,” he said. “We just do our thing. We’re familiar with one another… our families are very tight.”
Talking about their collaboration in Malcolm X, Lee described Washington’s interpretation of the iconic human rights activist as “the best performance in a biopic ever” and whipped up a round of applause from the audience.
He then gave shout-out to actor’s recent nomination for Gladiator 2, asking: “Has anyone seen Gladiator 2?”
Highest 2 Lowest is based on Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime thriller High and Low, as per a previous interview with the Deadline Studio earlier this week, Lee emphasized that the movie was a reinterpretation, not a remake.
In the conversation, Lee revealed how Kurosawa’s 1950 picture Rashomon had influenced his 1986 film, She’s Gotta Have It, starring Tracy Camilla Johns as Nola Darling, a girl stringing along three boyfriends.
“Kurosawa, I first got hip to him in film school at NYU. For me on of the best things that happened to be at film school was being introduced to the world cinema… the film Rashomon, the structure of that film was She’s Gotta Have It,” he said.
“In Rashomon, you have the viewpoint of several people who witness a rape… in She’s Gotta Have It you’ve got this woman named Nola Darling, who has three boyfriends at the same time and these guys have their varied opinions of Nola Darling. The very beginning I was influenced by Kurosawa.”
Lee turned to Kurosawa once again for inspiration in the conversation. When questioned on whether he ever planned to retire, he ask how old the late Japanese director was when he made his last film.
“How old was Kurosawa?,” he asked the audience. “81? I got some time left – whether it’s God or Allah I’m blessed. if you’re able to make a living doing what you love, it’s a blessing,” said Lee, who is 67-years-old.
Lee is at the Saudi Arabian film festival as the president of the jury for main Yusr Awards competition focused on films by emerging talents from the Middle East, African and Asia.
He is is among a raft of stars attending the event’s fourth edition alongside Michael Mann, Michael Douglas, Michelle Yeoh, Catherine Zeta–Jones, Eva Longoria, Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Sarah Jessica Parker and Jeremy Renner.
It is Lee’s third visit to the country, having previously attended the festival in 2022 and also filmed scenes of his 1992 Oscar-nominated biopic Malcolm X in Mecca.
