Denzel Washington Almost Played Brad Pitt’s Seven Character

There was never a time when Denzel Washington wasn’t on a hot streak. Not only does Washington have a talent for picking interesting or unique projects, but he also has the acting acumen to back up whatever he selects. Even when he’s decided to make a mainstream genre thriller, clunky crime flick, or brutal, brainless actioner, he is always present, bringing nuance and texture to his performances. It also helps that Washington has become a go-to collaborator for multiple talented directors, having worked with Spike Lee, Antoine Fuqua, Carl Franklin, Jonathan Demme, and both Ridley and Tony Scott multiple times apiece. He has also taken it upon himself to produce 10 movies based on August Wilson’s plays, two of which (“Fences,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) have already been made.

Washington’s hot streak in the mid-1990s included, in a row, “Much Ado About Nothing,” “The Pelican Brief,” “Philadelphia,” “Crimson Tide,” Virtuosity,” “Devil in a Blue Dress,” “Courage Under Fire,” “The Preacher’s Wife,” and “Fallen.” That is a long string of amazing, or at least interesting/thrilling, movies. The only turkey might be “Virtuosity,” but I can’t accuse that sci-fi serial killer movie of not being entertaining. 

It seems, however, that, in the middle of that hot streak, Washington still has regrets. There was a particular film that he was offered in 1995 that he turned down. The role was Detective David Mills, a cop investigating a particularly brutal serial killer in an unnamed American city. The film was David Fincher’s “Seven.” In a conversation Washington had with CTV in 2014, the actor noted that the screenplay was too intense for him. The role of Detective Mills ultimately went to Brad Pitt. 

“Seven,” of course, was one of the bigger hits in the serial killer boom that followed the success of “The Silence of the Lambs.” Pitt and Morgan Freeman were pitted against a murderer who mutilated his victims to match one of the seven deadly sins. “Seven” is aggressively dour and bleak, taking place in a gray, filthy world of eternal rain. Freeman was the wise, too-tired cop, and Pitt was the feisty, impatient upstart. At the end of the film, the serial killer gets the drop on the two main characters, and the Pitt character is moved to horror by what the killer has put in a special little cardboard box … 

Given the way Pitt played the role, it’s hard to see Washington playing Detective Mills. Mills is impulsive, immature, itching for action. Washington typically plays strong-willed people, resolute and confident, even if they’re evil; he’s not the actor one hires if they want a pathetic or sniveling character. He might have felt he had no way of playing a role like Detective Mills, a character who was ultimately manipulated by a serial killer. Washington was handed the script to “Seven,” read it, turned it down, and then later regretted it. 

Washington was interviewed on the red carpet at TIFF in 2014, and revealed the following: 

“I was like, man, it’s just too much. […] Then I saw it and I was like, ‘Oh God.’ Evidently it wasn’t for me, it was for Brad all the time. […] It was just too much when I read it, it was just different when I saw it.”

It’s also possible that Washington had already committed to the three other films he released in 1995 (“Virtuosity,” “Crimson Tide,” “Devil in a Blue Dress”) and he would have had to abandon one of them for “Seven,” something he wasn’t prepared to do. Washington is also keen to work with experienced directors, and “Seven” was only Fincher’s second film after the debacle of “Alien³.” He admitted to GQ that, in this one case, his career instincts were wrong.