John David Washington on Ballers, BlacKkKlansman and more

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 October 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Before John David Washington was an actor, he was lacing up the pads every week for a career in professional football. It seems fitting, then, that when he took up acting, his breakthrough role was the portrayal of an NFL player on HBO's Ballers . Washington has since gone onto play a bunch of other big parts since Ballers. He has since had a lead part in Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman and a role in the brand new mystery comedy Amsterdam, which just hit theaters. In 2019, he joined us to chat about the many times he had to audition for his role on Ballers. Plus, what it was like to get a stunning offer for his role in BlacKkKlansman in a text message from Spike Lee.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:12.7	For MaximumFun.org and NPR, it's Bullseye.
0:30.2	John David Washington made his acting debut in 1992 in Spike Lee's Malcolm X. John's
0:37.2	father, Denzel, yes, that Denzel Washington, was the star of the movie.
0:42.7	And when Spike needed a boy about eight years old for a quick cutaway scene, well, it wasn't
0:49.0	hard for John to get the part.
0:50.6	May 19th, we celebrate Malcolm X's birthday because he was a great, great Afro-American.
0:58.8	Malcolm X is you, all of you.
1:02.1	And you are Malcolm X.
1:04.4	I'm Malcolm X!
1:07.3	But for the next couple decades, that was pretty much it for his acting career.
1:12.0	Washington played football in high school, who was good at it.
1:16.0	He played in college.
1:17.1	He even entered the NFL draft and played pro for a few years and other leagues.
1:22.5	Washington made acting his career in 2015.
1:25.2	He starred as Ricky Jarrett in the HBO drama Ballers.
1:29.1	Ricky was a football player, which was familiar territory for Washington.
1:33.8	But he also was great in it.
1:36.7	This number, this number represents the man I am on and off the field.
1:42.4	My dad wore 81.
1:44.6	So I took the number 18 to flip the script.
1:47.2	I swore a long time ago I'd never take the field wearing a jersey that didn't say anything
	...

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