Let's Whip Denzel Washington More Than We Said We Would!

5 Actors Who Weren't Acting In Their Most Iconic Scenes
In Edward Zwick's 1989 Civil War film Glory, Denzel Washington plays a very proud and defiant runaway slave who has volunteered to fight in the union army. Due to his military insubordination, he is flogged pursuant to military discipline dictates. But, after the order is given, his commanding officer (Matthew Broderick, who probably should have faked a sick day from the army that day) realizes he is essentially having Denzel whipped in the way Denzel has been abused by slave owners so many times before. It is, without question, the most provocative scene in the movie. Watch Denzel show all of this on his face. A fierce display of defiance giving way to an angry tear when confronted with the loss of control.

Now, as you can imagine, it's quit a mindfuck to be a black actor working for a white director and taking directions on how to be whipped. I mean, anyone with a modicum of sensitivity would probably want to address this. That's why when Steven Spielberg made Amistad, he had strict rules about how the black actors portraying slaves were to be treated. And one of those rules was that black actors could only be shackled by black personnel. Well, Edward Zwick wasn't sweating that on the set of Glory because he had a great idea for how to get a performance out of Denzel Washington. What if he told the guy off camera to just keep whipping Denzel? Like more than Denzel expected? Great! Zwick had the camera loaded with extra film and instructed that Denzel should keep getting flogged until he "found it."

It may be a great performance, but before subjecting Denzel to wildly insensitive psychological torture, do you wonder if Zwick at least gave one of the greatest actors of our a time a chance to get the performance right?