Denzel Washington lends his features to Robert McCall for the first time in “Equalizer”, an adaptation of the eponymous series. In order to adopt a fast and precise gesture, the actor trained for several months and was able to count on the advice of a former Navy SEAL.
Equalizer : Denzel Washington against the Russian mafia
Accustomed to the action film in which he tried several times with the great Tony Scott (USS Alabama, Man on Fire) but also with Daniel Espinosa (Close security) or Baltasar Kormákur (2 Guns), Denzel Washington finds himself for the first of his career to headline a muscular franchise with Equalizer. A feature film based on the eponymous series created by Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim, in which the actor succeeds Edward Woodward in the role of Robert McCall.
Employee of a DIY store, McCall leads a quiet life and maintains the same habits since the death of his wife, suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Every evening he goes to a having dinner to read, where he regularly chats with a young prostitute named Alina (Chloë Grace Moretz). One night, he witnesses the violence she suffers from Russian mobsters. Beaten up, she ends up shortly after in intensive care at the hospital. McCall decides to tackle the criminal network that has attacked her and finds himself chased by the frightening Teddy (Marton Csokas), a gangster ready to massacre the entire city of Boston to eliminate him.
David Harbour, Haley Bennett, Melissa Leo and Bill Pullman complete the cast of the film, which marks the reunion between Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua after Training Day. After the departure of Nicolas Winding Refn due to creative disputes, the actor suggests to Sony the name of the director of The White House fall.
All items are weapons
Antoine Fuqua, Denzel Washington and stunt coordinator Keith Woulard work together on Robert McCall’s gestures and fights. The filmmaker is inspired moves of boxer Sugar Ray Leonardand the actor entrusts to AskMen practiced boxing a lot to be in shape. Quoted by 20 minutesthe actor explains:
I’m convinced that the public sees when they’re being lied to, so I wanted to do as many action scenes as possible myself.
The director, for his part, claims to have taken care to make these action scenes particularly readable:
We had the same idea. We wanted to make a brutal whodunnit with fights that look real and an edit that lets you see every action.
Denzel Washington also learns to perform extremely fast gestures, in particular to disarm his adversaries, and to use everyday objects as weapons. For this, he can count on the advice of experts in martial arts and self-defense, including a former member of the Navy SEALs. Asked by The Guardianhe declares :
They use pens and things like that. The glasses are very effective.
Extensive research on obsessive-compulsive disorder
To further humanize Robert McCall, whose motto is “progress, not perfection”, Antoine Fuqua and the star are also working hard on his obsessive-compulsive disorder. Denzel Washington tells Collider :
We added that so he’s not just a doer. He has flaws, is imperfect and we didn’t want to finish the film where everything is fine for him at the end. (Laughs) (…) We obviously did a lot of research on the subject. He has an obsessive behavior that can be characterized in many ways. For example, I read a book called “I Hardly Never Wash My Hands: The Other Side of OCD” (by JJ Keeler, editor’s note), and I understood that it’s not just about someone who will wash their hands 50 times.
In the feature film, Robert McCall’s troubles are reflected in the fact of perfectly aligning his cutlery and his books, the fact of timing everything or even keeping his apartment spotless. Habits revealing a painful past and formidable skills.
