Did you know that before Denzel Washington won his first Academy Award in 1990, there were no other people named Denzel out in the wide world? Well, I guess except for his father. But now, according to Jimmy Kimmel, there are four NFL players named after the actor. And, according to this website, as of 2021, there are at least 8,833 people with the first name Denzel in America.
But they’re all pronouncing it wrong. And we’ve been pronouncing it wrong all of these years, too.
Washington was Kimmel’s first guest back after his summer break this week. It’s a wide-ranging interview where they talk about the jobs Denzel had before he was an actor, the Dallas Cowboys, and partying with P-Funk’s George Clinton.
The whole interview is worth watching if you haven’t seen it yet. Denzel appears to be enjoying the trappings of celebrity more now that he has announced his retirement plans. He laughs more freely and seems more human, instead of a demigod descending from Mount Olympus to give interviews.
You can skip ahead to the 7:45 mark to get to the part of the interview where he talks about his name.
On behalf of myself and everyone who loves your work enough to have tried to watch The Mighty Quinn, I apologize for mispronouncing your name, sir.
In fairness, his mom decided to pronounce his name differently to differentiate him from his father (he’s a Junior.) And none of us are brave enough to argue with Denzel’s mom. So he’s Denzel forever now.
Denzel Washington’s latest Spike Lee joint, Highest 2 Lowest, is in select theaters right now and premieres on AppleTV+ on Friday.