Video Shows Denzel Washington Taking Time Out to Encourage Aspiring Actress: 'Why You Crying, Girl?'

Denzel Washington, whose seemingly limitless bevy of quotes and anecdotes generated no shortage of Gladiator II headlines last year, is being roundly praised on social media over a seemingly recent interaction with an aspiring actress.

The clip, which has been making the rounds in recent days without any credit or additional context, shows a woman walking behind Washington, who’s seen carrying a number of bags as he enters what looks like a theater in the NYC area. Though the clip cuts off the woman’s words, she’s heard mentioning “actors that are fighting out here to get work,” at which point Washington urges her to “come inside,” albeit with one caveat: “Put the phone down.”

We then jump to footage of the two standing side by side, with the woman seemingly explaining that she’s from Trinidad.

“Trinidadian!” Washington says in response before acknowledging that the woman is having a tearful reaction to meeting him. “Why you crying, girl? I’m regular people just like you.”

Of course, thanks to the increasingly annoying practice of videos being ripped without proper context, thus creating a closed circle of creditless purgatory, no further info on the Washington footage was immediately available.

For those looking for acting advice, Washington has offered insight into his relationship with the craft in the past. During a 2018 TimesTalks Festival conversation, for example, he cited the late American Conservatory Theater founder William Ball when asked to speak about what he considers his “greatest failure.” For Washington, it’s important to take big swings as an artist, regardless of the outcome.

“[Ball] talked about failing big and I like that idea as an artist,” Washington said at the time. “I’ve had some failures in front of a lot of people but I didn’t mind that because you grow from that.”

More recently, amid Gladiator II promo in late 2024, Washington was seen in footage explaining that the key to better developing one's craft as an actor is to seek out stage work.

Washington is currently starring alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in a new Broadway production of the Shakespeare classic Othello. Later this year, he’ll be seen in Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, leading a cast that also features ASAP Rocky and Ilfenesh Hadera.