Denzel Washington & Spike Lee join First Take! 🎥 Denzel CRITICIZES Jerry Jones DESPITE fandom 😳

Denzel Washington & Spike Lee join First Take! 🎥 Denzel CRITICIZES Jerry Jones DESPITE fandom 😳

Well, this is going to be a good time. We now welcome in two men that need no introduction, an honor, and a pleasure. Denzel Washington and Spike Lee ahead of their new movie out this Friday, highest to lowest in theaters. Gentlemen, thank you so much for being with us. See you for having us. And I had the pleasure of seeing the film. It’s phenomenal. On the edge of my seat, shot beautifully. The sound the soundtrack is unreal. But Denzel, I want to start with you. I felt like your character, David King, was aspirational yet very relatable at the same time. What drew you to that role? Uh, I just thought it was a good story, you know, set in a in in in good set of circumstances. It begs the question, you know, what would you do in that in that situation? Easy to say, but what would you actually do? And uh the the material, I forgot if it came through my agent, but it came to me first and before Spike. And when I read it, I said, “Oo, this is New York. This is I called Spike immediately. I’m like I I picked up the phone right away.” That’s so How difficult was it to shoot that film? Because just the essence of the city and the subways all over the place. It was so well done. Every film is difficult. Different levels, but every film is difficult. But we’re home. So we weren’t on We weren’t on our road. We weren’t in Boston. Here we go. Here we go. Not Boston. You not we were home, right? So, it was it was a amazing experience. And uh I thank my brother for thinking of me and uh this is our fifth film together. Speaking of that fifth film together, y’all always think about each other and everybody knows that. What what’s what makes this relationship, Denzel, so special, you and Spikeley? man, you know, it that’s we don’t have enough time, you know, and now it’s our families. It’s our children, our wives, our w our Yeah. First of all, yeah. Yeah. We we have no choice in the matter. Queens. Yeah. The queens. The Washington leaves. And and and time, you know, as we all know, we’re finding out time. I’m 70 years old now and it didn’t seem like it was 18 years between films, but it was Inside Man. Inside Man. And I was like, “Wait a minute. This is great. Man, we made a lot of money the last go round.” And nobody knows New York better than this man. But it was a no-brainer. I’m thinking about ASAP, Rocky, Jeffrey, Right. You know, the whole cast. Outstanding. Just outstanding. Ice Spice. Ice Spice. Let’s not forget. Speak to them. Speak about them and what they meant to this particular film because they added a lot. Again, he put them together. Put an all-star team together. Equal weight. you know, Michael Pototts, Jeffrey Wright, all great Ilfinish, Wendle, great actors, you know, made my job easy and um they could hit the ball back over the net and and and ASAP came to the table like, “Okay, youngster.” He did youngster. Yes, he did. Sure did. It was special. It was special. I said, “Oh, damn.” Okay, absolutely. Can we transition to some sports, gentlemen? Should we start Cowboys or Knicks? Yeah, let’s get it out the way. Okay, let’s start. Let’s start Cowboys cuz I’m with you on that, Denzel. [Applause] I knew I just said he’s with me on that. Elaborate on what you mean by that. Well, there to say I’m with you. We must first then know where you are. Where are you? You know where I’m at. Black cat running around that franchise, that Dallas Cowboy franchise. They ain’t going to do anything in the near future. They going to lose like they always do when it counts. That’s when your team is who? Pittsburgh Steelers. Where’s your terrible? I don’t have it. You do it out. That’s what happens. I like Pittsburgh. Mhm. I don’t like what Dallas is doing. I know they’re making a lot of money and I’m happy for the owner, but the fans ain’t happy. I’ve been a fan. I I grew up in Mount Running Uptown. Money earning. The Red Raiders. We were the Red Raiders in the 60s. I was the running back and we used to shift like the Cowboys. Landry. So I said, “Oh, the Cowboys play like us, right? I’ve been a Cowboy fan since the 60s. He’s making it hard for me.” Wow. Not to be a fan because I’m still a Cowboy fan. I’m still going to have to star on the side of the hat. But he ain’t thinking about us. He’s thinking about his pocket. Okay. I mean, says it all. Jerry Jones on the phone. Get him on the phone. What does he say? You tell me. What does he say? He says that he’s getting rich. My Cowboys. We’re the most successful brand in sports. You know you mean in terms of what? Championship. No, of course he can’t say championship. He’s talking about recognition, notoriety, dollars, and cents. I said, but in the end, more than the Yankees. You haven’t been in an NFC championship game or Super Bowl in 30 years. 30 years. Okay. And for some reason, he’s just stubborn, man. He just And then you got his son sitting there talking about Michael Parsons like, “Hey, he got to want to sign a contract.” What makes no sense, guys? But you know this, there’s box office and there’s Oscars. Jerry, been a while, huh? You ain’t been to the show, you wouldn’t know. Wouldn’t been to the show, you wouldn’t know. Uh oh. Haven’t been to the show, so you wouldn’t know what it is to win. I I don’t I don’t need to add. I feel like we could And I love the Cowboys. I love the Cowboys cuz I really love them. This is why I feel the way I feel. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I’m here to talk about the movie and that’s what and I wanted to get back to the movie because you know I you didn’t bring the Speaking of the movie highest to lowest. You didn’t bring it. You didn’t bring it up. And what does it say down the bottom of the movie? What? Or does it say it on the one sheet? What does it say? All money ain’t good money. Jerry, say it again. All money ain’t good money. Jerry, what time? August 15th, we open Friday. All money ain’t good money. At this stage in point in your career, there’s always a message. There’s always something that you’re trying to accomplish. What were you trying to accomplish with this particular movie? Well, number one, I had to do justice to the great Akira Kurasawa, great Japanese filmmaker who made original film back in 1963. When I went to NYU graduate film school, that’s where I got into world cinema. Right away I saw Curse I was a guy and it’s not a remake. I keep trying to tell people it’s a re we reimagine it, you know. And uh we say Denzel, we’re like jazz musicians who take a standard. Miles Davis, My Funny Valentine, you know what? Put his Cold Train did my favorite things. You know, Spike Lee does the original. It’s great, but you know, we put our thing on it. And so I want to throw this out to both of you because ASAP Rocky’s performance obviously spectacular, an outstanding performance. I see you saying so many inspirational things to the youngsters on the Comeup. And I’m thinking about this movie and I’m thinking about the I ain’t going to tell the movie, but I’m thinking about the ending because that was inspirational in of itself. Yeah. Everybody will know why when you watch this lady perform at the end of the movie this Friday. This Friday. Okay. But with the both of you, like you said, it’s a standard. And so many times you’ve seen other folks lament the absence of a standard being met. Guys like yourself are about ele making sure you establish the standard and uplifting folks. How important is that at this time in your careers to be that kind of inspiration to so many folks on that’s what it’s about. I mean you you can’t take it with you. You’ll never see a U-Haul behind a hearse and the Egyptians tried it. All they got was Rob. So what’s left for me at 70 years old is to help. I mean I’ve been doing that anyway. Ways you know, ways you don’t know. Things I don’t talk about. But uh you know when you have a master like Spike who can reach out to my even to my son to to Malcolm and and and guide him and and and and teach him uh you know the work behind the camera and and it’s in our home. I mean my my my son is a wonderful actor. My daughter Olivia is a great actor. My other our other daughter is a producer. So we have to p we are passing it on and and you know them young horses can run. You know I like watching them run. Can’t keep up. Anyway, Spike, I’m told that we have to like question. For me, I’m a teacher. I’m a 10 professor of film for 30 years. They can’t fire me. I’m tenure NYU. And so when you’re able to share your experiences, your ups, your downs with your students and tell them they got to put the work in. You got to put the work. Got to be about the work. Got to put whatever it is, you got to put the work in. And then also try to inspire the love of cinema, storytelling, storytelling, you know, and just do it. Do it. Okay. I’m told we have to let you go, but really quickly, what is the story of the Knicks right now? How are you feeling? We were having a discussion in the back room. I need a forward that can score some points. This is our year. Brunson can’t pass it to himself. This is our year. Will you be nice? Do you like the coaching change? Because they’re right there. I I love Tibs. Yeah, the Knicks are right there. And it was not my decision. I didn’t think he should have been fired either. I’m happy Mike Brown got a chance again, but I didn’t think Tiff should be fired. Hey, it’s a tough business. Tough business. Why was he fired? Stubborn. Bit stubborn players not using a lot utilizing his bench when Muel Bridg is an iron man who shows up every night to play throughout his career looks goes to the media and says, “Yo man, we need some rest.” That’s a bad sign. We the team the starters led the league in minutes last year and so second round of the playoffs and the guys are on gas. I know we got to go but uh you ain’t getting out of here without answering something about the Lakers. Okay, Mr. Lakers. What what day you talk about the Knicks cuz I do appreciate you saying they right 17. How many we got? Can you count? I’m saying I’m saying I said you can’t count, right? I’m Yes, I know who they are. But I’m asking you a question, Denzel. What’s the question? What’s the Lakers going to do this to you? We will see. I I I’m impressed by what the young man did. He he got himself in shape and um defense wins championships. But we’ll see. We’ll see. I’m amazed and inspired by Mr. James. I mean, he’s going to play till he’s 50. What is he going to do? No doubt. Second greatest play in great shape. Who’s first? Michael Jordan. And where was he born? We know that. Brooklyn. Where was he born? Fort Green, Brooklyn, New York. I got you. Where was he raised? That don’t matter. Mike Mike is mad in Brooklyn. It’s true. It’s true. That’s true. It’s how it is. Gentlemen, thank you so much for stopping by to hang out this Friday. Friday, highest to lowest. Make sure you check it out in theaters everywhere. All money good money. All money ain’t good money. We know that’s for sure. All money ain’t good money. That’s our line. We You know what? We just going to keep playing that sound from Denzel. Jerry got a message for you. Bam. More money. Give it to him, man. Ain’t good money. Oh, I’m going to give it to him. You just did. I don’t have to now. He ain’t got nothing. What about my brother in Cleveland? He ain’t got nothing on Sanders. How many teams passed on him? All of those 32. He’s 144th overall pick.

Legendary actor Denzel Washington and renowned director Spike Lee join Stephen A. Smith and Molly Qerim on First Take ahead of the release of their new film, “Highest 2 Lowest,” in theaters Friday.

0:00 Denzel on his role
1:30 Their relationship
2:37 Other cast members
3:15 Denzel is a big Dallas Cowboys fan
6:19 Spike’s message
9:47 New York Knicks’ outlook
10:45 Outlook for the Los Angeles Lakers
12:02 Shedeur Sanders thoughts

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