Anyone who has been part of any profession likely knows the experience of not always seeing eye-to-eye with a coworker.
According to a 2022 survey, 90 percent of respondents admitted to having an ‘annoying’ colleague at work.
Moreover, 57 percent revealed that the irritation from this coworker was enough to make them consider leaving their job or had caused them to leave a previous position, as reported by CNBC.
This situation seems similar to what happened between Josh Brolin and Denzel Washington during the filming of Ridley Scott’s “American Gangster,” released in 2007.
At that time, Brolin was a rising star, while Washington was already an established actor.
Despite being relatively new, Brolin had filmed impressive scenes with Russell Crowe, which producer Brian Grazer was reportedly enthusiastic about.
Washington supposedly heard about Grazer’s praise for Crowe and Brolin, which seemed to unsettle him.
As a result, Washington displayed a somewhat unfriendly demeanor toward Brolin during a particular scene, reacting negatively to physical contact from the younger actor.
While on the In Depth with Graham Bensinger podcast, Brolin, known for his role in Avengers, recounted: “Denzel was a little late to set and there was a whole thing there. 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.”
Brolin admitted he was quite awe-struck working with Washington, to the extent he forgot a line.
“I put my hand on his shoulder and said, ‘What’s the line?’ and he hit my hand off and said ‘Don’t ever put your f***ing hand on me.'”
“I was like, ‘Holy sh*t, I’m going to scrap with Denzel Washington.'”
Brolin later reflected that Washington might have been in character during the incident.
After the encounter, they moved past it quickly, as Brolin noted that a year later, Washington greeted him warmly with a hug.
Furthermore, Brolin mentioned that he and the Gladiator II actor “get along well” now.