When director Antoine Fuqua was searching for the perfect actor to lead the band of brothers that fight against injustice in The Magnificent Seven, he knew he needed an iconic figure; a man who, as he succinctly puts it himself, has “total gravitas on screen.” And he had just one name of his list: Denzel Washington.
Fuqua remembers a meeting with studio executives when he first mentioned Washington’s name and an expectant hush settled on the room. “I said, ‘Denzel Washington would be amazing in this movie. Think about it. Who else can pull that off? The weight, the voice, the power – total gravitas on screen.”
At that point Fuqua had no idea if Washington would say ‘yes’ but the two share a powerful creative bond, a friendship, and a very successful cinematic history and, after a lunch meeting where he pitched the idea, the actor was on board.
“Antoine and I have obviously had great success,” says Washington. “We won our Academy Award with Training Day and we had great financial success with The Equalizer. He’s a master filmmaker – he knows what he is doing and he knows how to put films together and he allows me to do what it is I know how to do. I think we are a good fit.”
They are indeed. With Washington playing the role of Sam Chisolm, who recruits a group of outlaws to help protect a town from a brutal tyrant, an all-star cast – including Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and Vincent D’Onofrio – fell into place around him and the seven were ready to ride on to our screens.
Fuqua recalls watching westerns with his family when he was a boy – they are, he says, a huge part of his own personal film history – including the much loved original, The Magnificent Seven, which starred Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen.
Washington himself hasn’t seen the original or indeed, the Seven Samurai, the 1954 Akira Kurosawa film that inspired director John Sturges’ 1960 western.
“I think he got interested in movies from watching westerns, frontier movies, as a child,” says the actor. “And so this is a life-long dream come true for him.”
Washington preferred, instead, to trust his impeccably honed instincts for a great story and concentrate on making their film with Fuqua, a filmmaker he admires, from a brilliant screenplay by Nic Pizzolatto and Richard Wenk and creating their own contemporary western.
“I didn’t grow up watching movies, you know my father was a minister so we weren’t allowed to watch a lot of movies. I saw Bonanza (the 1960s TV series), so we got to see some shows,” he recalls.
“And you know I didn’t approach the character based on what people say or have said about the past movies because I don’t know how to play ‘mythical.’ I don’t know what that means. I just look at what the script gives me and what it says about this man in these circumstances.”
“Antoine had put a great team together and you trust in each department’s ability to handle it. And you know, it all starts with the material and the writing and shaping the material. You trust in that.”
The story – and Fuqua says that he wants to honor the spirit of both previous films – is both timeless and powerful; a classic tale of good versus evil set to the majestic backdrop of the old west.
A young woman, Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) seeks out a loner, Sam Chisolm, after she sees him arresting the man he has been searching for, to serve a warrant. Emma pleads with him to help to defend her small town from a ruthless land baron, Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), and his army of henchmen.
Chisolm, as the audience will discover, is haunted by tragic events in the past and has his own personal reasons for accepting what could be a suicidal challenge.
“He has come to this town to do a job but he can see that the town is being taken over. And when Chisolm meets Emma he can see her fire,” says Washington.
“He can relate to her and her circumstances and I think he feels like this is his chance to set things right, to do something for her that he was unable to do in his own case, with his own family. I think he sees her resolve and her determination to seek justice.”
“He wasn’t able to serve justice in his own family and he now has this desire to right wrongs, to make evil people pay for their crimes.”
One by one he recruits the disparate band of men who will join the cause – Josh Faraday (Pratt), a hard drinking gambler with an eye for the ladies and a gunslinger, Goodnight Robicheaux (Hawke), a sharp shooter, Jack Horne (D’Onofrio), a brilliant tracker, Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) an outlaw, Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee), an expert with knives and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier) a Comanche warrior.
At first, they agree to fight simply for money, but when they are confronted with the harsh realities of what life is like under Bogue’s tyranny, their quest becomes far nobler and they are willing to put their own lives on the line and stand up for justice.
“The film starts with a scene where Bogue’s men are terrorizing people and he literally kicks the church door down and burns the church down. So there’s a spiritual aspect to it, of good against evil and Bogue personifies everything evil,” explains Washington.
“These men are all there for a number of different reasons – they all have their own motivations for joining Chisolm at first – but that changes when they see that Bogue has enslaved these people.
“They see how his evil man has broken the backs, literally and spiritually, of these people and I think that affects each of the seven of us in a different way but it makes us all determined to do something about it.”
“There’s something timeless about the idea of protecting the weak, the innocent – which is what these people are. Chisolm didn’t come to the town for that reason but he does have those abilities, he can fight – and each of the seven does too – so he is the right man in the right place at the right time.”
His own character, Chisolm, is a classic from the western genre – a conflicted loner with a troubled history, a hero who will step up and do the right thing.
“My character is a duly sworn warrant officer from Kansas. He’s also a licensed peace officer in Arkansas, Nebraska, Indian Territories and seven other states – that’s what he always says to everyone when he meets them because he’s a black man in the frontier, in a position of authority, so he needs to let people know that he has authority from the government to do his job.”
“He’s a loner, he’s unafraid and he’s a master with his weapon but he’s not a braggart. He’s a lonely man, an honorable and courageous man, you know, everything I’m not,” he laughs.
“He’s complicated and he’s not used to dealing with people, especially some young girl like Emma but when he finds out the circumstances and what’s involved, he has a particular purpose.”
The film is an action-packed, brilliantly-crafted story of the old west, with memorable characters, and, says Washington, it also poses an interesting moral question.
The Magnificent Seven was a long, at times grueling, shoot in high temperatures, with long days riding horses and filming action scenes. But it was a lot of fun, too, according to Washington.
“It’s fun because we’re on our horses and we’re all together and guys are talking, cracking jokes and you know, the guys are spinning their guns. I never had the opportunity – and I don’t know if I’ll get another opportunity – to do a western.
“Maybe it shouldn’t even be called a western – it’s a story that takes place on the frontier, on the edges of a young and new America. And it’s about what happens on those edges when there’s lawlessness and sometimes a lack of order so men like these seven will come together to make sense out of it.”
Before the cameras rolled, Washington, and his fellow cast, received weapons training from Thell Reed – the stuntman, armorer and exhibition shooter – who has worked as a consultant on a host of movies. Washington was fast on the draw – almost too fast.
“He would always tell me ‘smooth is fast..’ You know, I have fast hands and I’ve been boxing for years. I’m just fast but he was always telling me ‘slow down! Slow down!” he laughs.
“Thell is the man. He’s worked with John Wayne. You know, he’s the man. He’s the truth…”
Washington was also delighted to be working with his fellow cast members on The Magnificent Seven. “Everybody is strong, in their own way, they are very strong individuals. They are good men and a good young lady and you know, I’m somewhat like this character in that I’m more of an outsider and maybe that’s right for this part, you know.”
“I didn’t hang out too much with the fellas and that’s just sort of my nature anyway but there’s a lot of talent on the screen, that’s for sure.”
He did, though, share a few jokes with Chris Pratt, star of Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World. “I always kid Chris and I call him Jurassic Boy,” he smiles. “And you know he’s a very, very fine young man.
“He’s a spiritual young man and a good kid – I call him a ‘kid’ because he’s a kid to me, but he’s a grown man and a really good dude. I like him a lot and with all that he is dealing with now in his super-stardom, it doesn’t seem to affect him. He’s been raised right – he’s an ordinary man with an extraordinary job, that’s the way I like to look at it.”
You might say the same thing about Denzel Washington – a good man doing an extraordinary job, which made him perfect for The Magnificent Seven. And Antoine Fuqua knew that right from the start.
“The Magnificent Seven” is opening across the Philippines on Sept. 21.