Denzel Washington had a back and forth with an autograph seeker after the latter told the veteran actor that he had been untruthful about his sobriety.
A video of the confrontation was posted on Instagram on Monday by New York City-based autograph seeker GTVReality, though the incident happened around August 2025, Complex reported.
In the video, Washington, who is in the back seat of a Black SUV, is initially heard telling GTV to “get away” from him.
“It’s better when you’re drinking, Mr. Washington,” GTV is heard responding. “I haven’t had a drink in about 15 years,” Washington then responds, to which GTV replies, “That’s a good lie.”
GTV subsequently changes the topic and tells Washington that he saw him in the Malcolm X movie. “It’s my best movie,” the autograph seeker adds. “I was watching it with my mom’s growing up, man.”
Washington, however, digresses and asks GTV if he believes in God. “Of course I believe in God,” GTV responds.
“That’s why I wake up every morning and come out and hustle, not hurt nobody and do dumb shit—do n***a shit that n****s do in the hood every day, all day. I just get autographs, Mr. Washington. Seriously.”
“Do you believe in God,” GTV is also heard asking Washington. GTV also follows the car as it starts to move and tries to convince the award-winning actor for an autograph. “Takes seconds to help a brother out,” he is heard saying.
Washington then asks him to come close to the car before he shows him a picture on his phone. “Who do you think it is?” the 70-year-old asks GTV. “It’s God,” GTV responds.
“Who do you think took that picture?” Washington asks before he shares a story about praying. “I was praying to God. I couldn’t see your face. Everybody says they can see your face. I heard, ‘Turn to your left.’ That’s what I saw.”
“Listen to me,” the Gladiator II star adds. “You can play games with me,” he continues before GTV chimes in saying, “But you can’t play with Him.”
“Be careful when you talk to me about God,” Washington tells him.
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Washington had revealed he had been sober for nearly a decade in a 2024 interview for Esquire’s Winter issue, Face2Face Africa reported at the time.
The Equalizer star, in the interview, revealed details about his past struggles with drug and alcohol use, admitting to having “done a lot of damage” to his body. He also said that his unhealthy habits began with wine.
“Wine is very tricky. It’s very slow. It ain’t like, boom, all of a sudden,” he shared in the interview. Washington added: “I never got strung out on heroin. Never got strung out on coke. Never got strung out on hard drugs. I shot dope just like they shot dope, but I never got strung out.”
“And I never got strung out on liquor. I had this ideal idea of wine tastings and all that — which is what it was at first. And that’s a very subtle thing. I mean, I drank the best.”
Washington revealed that he once had a massive wine cellar in his home and frequently spent thousands of dollars on expensive bottles.
“I learned to drink the best. So I’m gonna drink my ’61s and my ’82s and whatever we had. Wine was my thing, and now I was popping $4,000 bottles just because that’s what was left,” he said. “And then later in those years I’d call Gil Turner’s Fine Wines & Spirits on Sunset Boulevard and say, ‘Send me two bottles, the best of this or that.’”
His wife, Pauletta, would often ask him why he’d only order two bottles at a time, to which he replied, “‘Because if I order more, I’ll drink more.’ So I kept it to two bottles, and I would drink them both over the course of the day.”
“I never drank while I was working or preparing. I would clean up, go back to work — I could do both,” the actor explained.
“However many months of shooting, bang, it’s time to go. Then, boom. Three months of wine, then time to go back to work.”
Washington quit drinking in December 2014, shortly after his 60th birthday. “I’ve done a lot of damage to the body. We’ll see. I’ve been clean,” Washington admitted in the interview.
“Be 10 years this December. I stopped at 60 and I haven’t had a thimble’s worth since. Things are opening up for me now — like being 70. It’s real. And it’s okay. This is the last chapter — if I get another 30, what do I want to do? My mother made it to 97.”
READ ALSO: Denzel Washington reveals he doesn’t watch movies anymore
