It's an interesting group of flawed people who get together and make a mess! 
Fresh from directing the award-winning (though utterly dire) Antwone Fisher, Denzel Washington gives an excellent performance as a love-struck, unstuck cop in Carl Franklin's smart noir thriller Out Of Time. The two-time Oscar-winning star of Glory and Training Day talks age, power and love scenes...
You went from directing Antwone Fisher to being "just an actor" again - how was that?
This was a tough film to do coming off of directing Antwone Fisher because Carl had such a style that he wanted to do. This wasn't an actor's film per se. It was chopped up bits and pieces. It wasn't a performance-driven film.
What appealed to you about it?
It's an interesting group of flawed people who get together and make a mess! It's the sort of film where you're shouting at the screen going: "Denzel, no! Don't do that! Oh, he got away with another one!"
You play a corrupt cop in Training Day and a flawed cop in this film - why the same kind of character so soon?
Maybe it's the power and the misuse of power, maybe they have that in common. But the fact that he was a policeman was the least important thing to me. He's a guy who swims and goes fishing, you know. He's Chief of Police and he's got three guys and one of them is kind of a crossing guard, so it's kind of sad.
You have some love scenes - do you ever get used to doing those?
Love scenes in movies are not what you think. There's a hundred people in the room and 20 takes later, you know... You try to make it intimate like it's just the two of you but really it's very technical. There's one scene we have where Sanaa Lathan and I move through the bathroom and through a door and all of that. I'm carrying her and now it's take 19... You know?
Do you feel like an elder statesman on set these days, working with younger actors?
You know, these younger actors are there because they're good and if they weren't good, they wouldn't be there. I'm not keen on that role model thing. I mean, I don't mind because I want to see younger actors do well. But I don't know if I'm their role model, per se. But you know, if that's what they think, that's cool.
Out Of Time is released in UK cinemas on Friday 26th December 2003.
