Denzel Washington Says Colorism Shouldn’t Be An Excuse for Black Actors

In a recent interview with BET while promoting “Fences,” Denzel makes it clear that colorism shouldn’t hold black actors back and he feels colorism shouldn’t be an excuse for anyone to not succeed in the business.

In fact, he thinks Viola Davis is proof of his feelings.

BET writes:

Asked if colorism holds dark-skinned actors and actresses back in show business, Denzel replies, “One of the best roles for a woman of any color in the last, in a good good while or at least any movie that I’ve been in, a dark-skinned woman has in this film. So as long as you’re being lead by outside forces or just being reactionary then you won’t move forward. You have to continue to get better.”

However, he goes on to add, “You can say, ‘Oh I didn’t get the part because they gave it to the light-skinned girl, or you can work, and one day, it might take twenty years, and you can be Viola.” He continues, “The easiest thing to do is to blame someone else, the system. Yeah, well, there’s a possibility, maybe, that you’re not good enough, but it’s easy to say it’s someone else’s fault. But there’s a possibility that you’re not ready and you can still blame it on someone else instead of getting ready.”