Josh Brolin recalls ‘American Gangster’ onset fight with Denzel Washington

Josh Brolin recalled almost getting into a fight with Denzel Washington on the set of American Gangster.

The actor appeared on the In Depth With Graham Bensinger podcast to discuss his new memoir, From Under the Truck, and shared a tense memory from the set of Ridley Scott’s American Gangster.

The 2007 crime drama featured Brolin as a detective and Denzel Washington as the notorious drug lord Frank Lucas.

During the interview, Brolin recalled a heated moment with Washington that nearly escalated into a physical altercation while filming the movie.

“Yeah, we almost got into a fight,” Brolin said, explaining that much of his time on set was spent working alongside Russell Crowe. However, the few scenes he shared with Washington—who was portraying a ruthless mobster—brought an added layer of intensity.

“Denzel was a little late to set and there was a whole thing there,” Brolin said.

“And then he showed me the lines…he didn’t change any of my lines, but he kind of changed the structure of it. He said, ‘I think I’m gonna put this down here and I’m gonna put that up there.’ But he wouldn’t really look at me.”

“I was trying to remember the structure, and then we rehearsed,” he continued.

“It wasn’t that many lines, mostly mine. And I’m supposed to be super confident. It’s Denzel Washington, man. It’s, like, not easy — you’re just some actor who they’re trying out, seeing if he’s the real thing or not. And I forgot a line.”

Brolin asked Washington to remind him of his line, but he did that along with putting his hand on the Equaliser star’s shoulder.

“And he hit my hand off and he said, ‘Don’t ever fucking put your hand on me,’” Brolin recounted.

“And I was like, ‘Holy shit, I’m gonna scrap with Denzel Washington. This is crazy.’ We’re not actors anymore — at least in my mind. In his mind, he was just doing his job. He was that guy. He was Frank Lucas, period. But I didn’t know. And then we got through that moment.”

Brolin further remembered, “I said, ‘Are you OK?’ He said, ‘Yeah. You?’ I said, ‘Yeah. Can I get my line?’ He said, ‘Go for it.’ It’s like he’d said what he needed to say.”

But now Brolin says there is no beef and the two actors “get along very well now”, as the interaction was just a temporary heated moment.