Posted by Adam

Friday January 15, 2010

DENZEL Washington says he never planned to be a movie star.

The Manchurian Candidate actor — who has been awarded three Golden Globe awards and two Academy Awards for his work — admits he’s surprised his Hollywood career has turned out to be such a roaring success.

“I never set out to be a movie star,” Washington told Parade magazine. “I remember when I was an actor in New York after growing up in Harlem, I was just hoping to $300 a week. When I achieved that I thought I was on top of the world.

“Now, I’m starting rehearsals to head back to Broadway in August Wilson‘s Fences with Viola Davis, which opens this spring. I can’t wait. I couldn’t go to sleep for a few nights just thinking about getting ready to start.

“And I’m looking forward to giving my wife Pauletta a chance to get back on stage too. She sort of gave up her acting career to raise the kids and now that they’re out of the house she can do what she wants.”

Denzel, 55, recently revealed that being spiritual has helped him realize what he wants to do with his life.

“I’m sitting around in my big house with all this stuff asking myself, ‘What do you want? You got everything. What do you want, Denzel?’” he said. “And it hit me like a brick.

“I thought, ‘I want wisdom and understanding.’ I was talking to a buddy of mine who runs the Boys and Girls Clubs in the town where I grew up — he’s also a pastor –and he said, ‘Denzel, go back to Proverbs, Chapter 4.’

“I told my wife and she said, ‘Yeah, my father lived by that.’ Basically, it’s saying that wisdom is supreme. Get wisdom and understanding even though it costs all your possessions. I thought, ‘That’s a life’s work right there.’ “

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