When Denzel Washington Refused To Kiss Close Friend Julia Roberts On-Screen Due To His Loyalty Towards Black Audience But She Said, “Of Course, I Wanted To Kiss…”

Academy Award-winning star Denzel Washington is a man of his word so when he refused to kiss his close friends Julia Roberts on-screen, he stuck to his promise. The actor despite sharing a good rapport with Roberts opted out of a kissing scene out of loyalty to his female African-American fans. Read on to know what he said about it.

Denzel was at the height of his success and so was Julia when the two were filming the 1993 thriller, The Pelican Brief. The actor at the time shared his reason as to why he refused to kiss Roberts. The award-winning star is best known for his movies like The Equalizer, Training Day, Fences, The Book of Eli, and American Gangster among others.

According to the website Cheatsheet Showbiz, Denzel Washington explained the reason behind not kissing Julia Roberts in The Pelican Brief saying, “Black women are not often seen as objects of desire on film. They have always been my core audience.” It was also reported that Washington earlier drew criticism from his Black fans for his on-screen kiss with Tom Cruise’s ex-wife, Mimi Rogers in a test screening of 1989 film The Mighty Quinn.