Denzel Washington has attributed his faith in God for saving him from a serious accident in which he nearly bit off his tongue. The Oscar winner, 70, is currently preparing to star as Othello on Broadway alongside Jake Gyllenhaal.
However, he revealed that his swollen tongue is affecting his ability to deliver lines. “I have a line: ‘Whither will you that I go to answer this your charge?’ It’s hard because my tongue is swollen,” he told the New York Times. “It has affected everything.”
The near-accident involving nearly biting off his tongue prompted the “Gladiator II” star to reflect deeply on his relationship with God.
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“That’s why you pray every day,” he explained. “I’m like, ‘OK, Lord, I’m here, I think this is what you wanted me to do.’
“Now I’m not sure why [I bit my tongue], but one can say coincidence and serendipity and all those things.”
Washington, known for “Remember the Titans,” did not share details about his tongue injury or any medical treatment. When asked whether acting helps people, he redirected the conversation to his faith in God.
“At this point, everything I’m doing is through the lens of what God thinks, not what they think. I don’t know what they think,” he said.
“You go down that hole, you’ll never come out of that. When people say, ‘What do you want people to get from this movie?’ or ‘What do you want them to get from this play?’ I always say, ‘It depends upon what they bring to it.'”
“There’s some interesting themes [in Othello] of jealousy and envy and pain and death.
He added: “And Kenny [Leon], the brilliant director, he’s putting it in what he calls the near future. So all of those things – jealousy, envy – it takes on a whole new thing with the information age.”
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Washington further revealed in the New York Times interview that a prophecy was once made about him.
“It was prophesied in my youth that I would travel the world and preach or speak to millions of people,” he said. “I used to think that I was doing that through my work. Now I’m trying to be a bit more specific, speaking about my faith.”
He said it started in 1975 when he had flunked out of college and was not sure what to do with his life.
“Well, a woman was sitting in my mother’s beauty shop in March 1975,” he began.
“The reason I was in there was I had flunked out of college – I was told to take a semester off to think about what I wanted to do. And every time I looked up, I saw this woman looking at me, and she said she was having a prophecy,” Washington explained.
“She didn’t say anything about me being an actor, but I have traveled the world, and I am speaking more and more.”
Washington rekindled his faith last year, getting baptized in December shortly before his 70th birthday. The ceremony was attended by his wife of over 40 years, Pauletta Washington, 74.
