Denzel Washington on His Favorite Rappers, Being a Dallas Cowboys Fan & He FaceTimes Lenny Kravitz

Our first guest tonight on this first night back is a movie star amongst movie stars. He is celebrating his fifth collaboration with Spike Lee. Their thrilling new thriller, Highest to Lowest, is in theaters now, and it premieres Friday on Apple TV+. Please welcome Denzel Washington. I'm better now. Can you all just go with me and walk around and clap and cheer wherever I go? Oh, I'm coming in and taking over your show. So I got a haircut today from C2. He told me you guys came to his shop years ago. Yes, that's right. He said you remember Burger. Oh, yeah. I love those guys. I used to go to that shop a lot. Yeah, he cut your hair? I did, I went there like 10 times. Yeah, we had some good times over there. Yeah, we used to talk about stuff. But then some of the guys quit, and it wasn't the same. Yeah, how are you? Your hair looks good. How is Labor Day? Do you cook or grill or anything like that? I had a Wagyu hot dog. Really, OK. I never had a Wagyu hot dog. Everything's Wagyu now, yeah. Yeah, Wagyu, it was very good. It was good. I had a little jerk burger. Oh, you did? Did you make this stuff? No, I didn't make nothing. You didn't make any of this stuff. I think people kind of assume you were born a movie star, but we talked before. You were a garbage man at one time. Yes, I was. My first job, I think I was 11 or 12, I worked in a barbershop. You did? Yeah, so I learned how to hustle. I found out everybody was money. I'd look at your shoes when you came in, hey, how you doing? I'm like, there ain't no money there. I had all kinds of little hustles, and you know. Well, what would people think of your shoes now? I mean, these are not exactly expensive shoes you're wearing, and yet you're a multi-billionaire. Am I? I think so, yeah. But did your garbage men know you were a garbage man? They did. Like, the ones who pick up the garbage at your house, do you ever hang out there and go like, they are used to it? The guys themselves? Yeah. No, I haven't seen them lately. Oh, you haven't? OK. I haven't seen them lately. Well, because first of all, they don't get out anymore. The thing comes over. The thing comes over now. They don't get out. Do you look at that and go, oh, that's not the way to do it? And it was metal cans. Yeah, metal cans. We had to grab it, bang it up against the side of the truck. So I was with this old Italian guy who had Popeye arms. And he just, da-da-da-da-da-da-da. He just was singing and carrying on. And what it is, the barbershop, the garbage men, it could last eight hours. It was really three hours worth of work if you didn't hit it. So we get in there and we hit it. But I didn't know how to pace myself. I see. So I ended up not being able to, like, my forearms were. By the end of the shift, you were? Worthless. Did you ever find anything good and keep it on the route? That was called haulage. Haulage? Haulage is when you call in and they would pick up stuff. You wanted to get on that. Oh, that's where you wanted to go. No, I didn't get on that. But that's where you wanted to be. Because the guys would keep the stuff? Stuff was there. Oh, really? Haulage. Well, we learned something about this. And you worked at a cafeteria at one time, right? Yeah, I had to eat. What did you do at the cafeteria? I went to grad school in San Francisco. And I knew, get a job at a restaurant because you can always eat. Oh, that's smart. Right next to the theater where I was going to school. And was it like a sizzler where people just go through and take what they want? No, it was a place called Salmagundi's 31 Soups, or 30 Soups or something, in San Francisco, right on Geary Street. And my first television movie ever, Wilma Rudolph's story, Where I Met My Wife. 50, I'm not supposed to say that. I'm not supposed to say that. I'm in trouble. We've been together, whatever, a long time. Since then. 77. And you were ladling soup for her, or what? No, no, no, no. I went to school. I met her that summer after I graduated undergrad. And then that fall, I went to ACT to graduate. Can you tell something about someone based on which soup they gravitate toward? I didn't meet her there in San Francisco. Oh, I see. The first TV movie I ever did was about Wilma Rudolph. And she was in it. And she loved soup, I heard. Just making things up. I'm now stuck on the soup. I love the idea of you doing this, you know? Now, my wife can burn, brother. OK, I don't want to make you mad, but I do want to mention the Dallas Cowboys, who are opening their season. I know you're a big Dallas Cowboys fan. I was talking to a young woman here in the audience. I wanted to see if I was smiling. From Dallas. How's that? Do you feel Jerry Jones is doing a good job running the team? Boy, let me tell you, Highest to Lowest is a great movie. That's what I feel. I'm going to stay. I am officially going to stay in my own corner, because I've come to realize that people aren't interested in what I say. They're interested in how they can use it. I see, I see. I'm going to stay in my own corner. Do you miss Micah Parsons? Do you think that it was a good idea? Keep going. Yeah. You know, I was interesting listening to the sports thing this morning about how good is he against the run. I hadn't thought about that. That's what they were saying. And he was really good against the run. Not according to whoever the guy was talking. Oh, not according to the guy? Yeah, that was talking. I see, I see. All right, well, it seems like people in Dallas are pretty upset about it. Are they really? Oh, they are, yes. And I have a feeling, if we had a polygraph, that we would find that you are very upset with it as well. No, I'm not very upset. I feel I'm a Cowboy fan since 1966. Yeah, yeah. This is what it was. I played football for the boys. Back then, it was the boys club. We were the Red Raiders, and we would shift. We would do something like this, and something, and then we'd go like this, right? Well, the team that did that in those days was the Dallas Cowboys. They'd come to here, and then they'd go up and go down. I said, they shift just like us. That's what attracted you to the team? Yeah, because they're like, you know, now I'm like, oh, they're like me. Yeah, had the same move. Yeah, the same move. So that's how I started. Who was your favorite player back then? Who was on that team? Well, first of all, the Giants had a home run. Anybody black? No, that's not even true. That's not even true, but most, no, it's not even true, because I was going to say, because most of the running backs were black, but they weren't. There was a guy named Walt Garrison. OK. Shoot, I can't think of names off the top of my head. But I was a running back, so of course, I'm a receiver, so I'm looking at those guys, and they were usually black. Did you know that there are currently four players named Denzel in the NFL? I know. And before your. There's a lot of Denzels, man. There weren't that many before your first Oscar. There were zero in 1987. And this is how you know they named themselves after me. Because, wait a minute, because my name's not pronounced Denzel. My name's pronounced Denzel. Oh. I'm Denzel Jr. My father's Denzel Hayes Washington Senior. I'm Denzel Hayes Washington Junior. My mother would say, Denzel, and we both show up. So she said, from now on, you're Denzel. That's how he got pronounced Denzel. Oh, that's smart. He said, you're Denzel. You're Denzel, and you're Denzel. There are two Denzels on the Arizona Cardinals, one team. In 1987, there were 14 Dennises and 24 Duggs. Five Earls, four Walts, two Butches. Wait, what team are you talking about? In the NFL, that year, 87, before you dominated the name category there. And two Corneliuses on the team. There ought to be some kind of compensation for this. You should get a small percentage of each, yes, each jersey sale. Well, we're going to take a break. We're going to come back. The new movie with Spike Lee, it's called Highest to Lowest, Denzel Washington Jr. Denzel. Is this a battle right now? I'm the brutalizer. I'm the accelerator. I ain't the type of black that be pissing in your elevator. But sometimes the rap game remind me of the crap game. I used to sport Pallies and Dezels with black friends. But now I'm in the new chicks, Tex and Vex. Come on, represent. Give me something. I got to feed the streets, my lady, and a newborn kid. And I ain't trying to go back and do another bid, you dig? Then handle your business and do what's right. Keep your head up. Highest to Lowest. Full disclosure, everything I said there, I stole from a rapper named Nas. You still have him now? Yeah. A song called Represent. There was a lot more kind of freestyling. Was any of it off the top of your head? I don't even remember. You don't remember? But I do know a lot of, I've been following him a long time. Was that in the script? Or did you just have Nas's lyrics in your head? Was King Kong and, you know? No, that's what I do. That's who you do. God has blessed me with that ability. And I was impressed by A$AP Rocky's acting. He's really good. You know what? I get it, Rihanna. No, let me tell you. He's a very intelligent young man. He's very nice. He's handsome. He's a good guy. He's good, yeah. I get it. He's a good dude. You could hang with him from a- He's smart. Very bright man. From a rap perspective, you were right in there with him, I thought. Who are the top three greatest rappers of all time? Here you go. Go ahead. Here you go. You wouldn't even know him. That's what I'm saying, because it's not necessarily the people that are- Who are your favorites? Top three favorites, then? Nas is one of my favorites of all time. Because I talk a lot, so he's a wordsmith. I'm up on this now. I was talking about it the other day, this young group, this girl, Samara Sin. And Smino. Oh, you- Yeah, brand new teeth. You stay current with this, then. I just, you know, there's another guy, C.C. Carter, who redid all these classic songs. I forgot his first name, C.C. Carter. You can look him up. I just love music. I DJ. I was DJing when I was like 12, 13 years old. You had a whole setup? You have the Technics- I DJed yesterday, all day. 1200 turntables and everything like that? Do you miss the turntables? Would you mix? I have my turntables in my room. What was your- Turntable. What was the songs, which songs did you close with when you'd do a party? Man, I was 13 and drunk at the time. I don't remember what was- Oh, Expansions. No, I was older than 13. I was around 16, 17. Expansions by Lonnie Liston Smith. Wow. Yeah, because you could hustle to it, and it was long. So when people got out on the floor, you could, if you had two of them, you could keep going for, you know, a half hour. You and Spike Lee have done five movies together now. Has there ever been a situation where you've said no to him or he's said no to you as far as working on a project? Or are you always right there? And you guys have a shorthand now? Or is it the same? Well, this project came to me first, and I thought, hey, this is a New York story. And I brought it to Spike. Based on a Kurosawa film? Yeah, yeah. Spike loves Kurosawa, right? So when you pitched this to him, you had a pretty good idea. I didn't pitch it to him. We had a script. I read a script. I forgot how it came to me. The agent, whoever, however it got to me, came to me. I liked it. And there wasn't a director attached. You play a record executive, a famous record executive in the film, and one who really loves music and who wants to get back to that love of music. And in the film, you see these photos of these great musicians, and you talk to them. And I wonder if you knew, if you know any of these people or knew any of these people. For instance, well, Jimi Hendrix, you're probably too young for. I'm not too young. Well, yeah, what year did he die? Hendrix died in like what, Guillermo, what year did Hendrix die? Oh, a long time ago. A long time ago. 60, 67? Come on, musician, 60, oh, 70. Okay, so I was 16, 15, 16. Yeah, so you weren't famous. You never met him. What about Aretha? You ever meet her? After I became famous. And you knew her or you just met her? Stevie, you know him? Don't know him, know him. I met him. James Brown. Met him. Partied with him. You partied with him. Please, continue. Mr. Brown. First of all, you called him Mr. Brown. I met Mr. Brown through my late great friend, Butch Lewis, a boxing promoter. We were like brothers and he was tight with James. And was it fun to hang out with James? James was all about business, brother. He wasn't. Really? Oh, yeah, he was cool though. I mean, he was cool, but he was. I'll tell you who I hung out with. I'm just name dropping now. Go ahead. So we're down at Lenny Kravitz's house in the Bahamas. We brought in the New Year down there. And who does he have down there? George Clinton from the Funkadelic. Now, I also know a whole lot of the George Clinton, you know, upon awakening from, oh, I can't say that. Cosmic Slop. Does anybody know Cosmic Slop? The old Jack's man, no, anyway. Anyway, George Clinton was the head of a group, Funkadelic. So me and George Clinton and Lenny Kravitz are sitting there, New Year's Day, just. George, was he generous with the stories? Did he tell you what you wanted to hear? No, it was cool. It was cool. I get to meet a lot of people through Lenny. Yeah, Lenny. I get to hang with the. Have you ever watched Lenny do sit-ups? I'm getting ready to say it. I'm getting ready to hang with, and I couldn't remember his name, Mick Jagger. Oh, yeah, yeah. Mick Jagger. Yeah, yeah. From that band. Yeah, that band. Rolling something. Yeah, right. Wow, that's pretty good. Lenny is something else, isn't he? He's like a superhuman being. I watched his workout videos, and he's a very attractive man. Let me see if I can get him. Oh, you're gonna call him? I'll FaceTime him. Okay, you know. Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. Wait a minute. This is gonna seem like one of those things we planned in advance, or he did not plan this in advance? He may not pick it, he may be working. I hope he's working out. I'd like to see him do some of those sit-ups for me. Let me see, because he's in New York. No, he might be on stage tonight. Kravitz. What's up, boy? Wait a minute. I'm here with Jimmy. Hey, Lenny, how you doing? Wait, y'all got this? He'll come to you, you see? Can he hear? They're all your fans, Lenny. You wanna do a song? Wow. I just got out of the shower. Anybody else wanna talk to him, or anybody need to? All right, come here, come here, come here. Wait a minute, wait a minute. You wanna take a quick shower with Lenny Kravitz? One of your fans here went, Hey, Lenny, you look great. Wish you were here. I just came back from the gym, took a shower, and the phone rang, so. Well, Jimmy's gonna be jealous because he wanted to see your body. I did, I did. Next time, Lenny. Yeah, next phone call. All right, my dear. All right, brother, love you. Lenny Kravitz, Denzel Washington, in Dinner's Out premieres Friday on Apple TV.