Denzel Washington doesn’t kiss butt which he believes may be why he doesn’t have any friends in Hollywood. He admits that he never really befriended anyone he worked with and instead keeps up with friends from the past who don’t work in showbiz. He even says he “doesn’t want movie star friends” and prefers a normal life with his wife:
“Even within the industry, I don’t have any actor friends. My friends are old friends. One’s an ex-music guy, the other’s a restaurant owner and the other’s an ex pro ballplayer… I don’t make friends. Maybe I’m not a butt-kisser, maybe I’m not a schmoozer. I’m not about to go to a party to try to get a job. And then, when you have children, the other friends become other parents. We’d coach baseball or basketball. My wife and I were raised right. I don’t want movie star friends.”
He admits that skin colour may have been an issue because he felt very isolated when he started out as an actor and didn’t make friends with any white actors throughout his entire career:
“Being African-American, there were no big movie stars to hang out with anyway, not when I was starting out, they were just the third guy from the back. For whatever reason, I never befriended any white actors.”