John David Washington Says He Used To Lie About His Dad Being In Jail So People Would Take Him Seriously

Surely being the son of one of the greatest actors of all time isn’t the easiest thing to be, especially if your dad is Denzel Washington.

In a recent interview with Mr. Porter, John David Washington shared some insight into what it was like growing up with a celebrity father and also spoke about his father’s influence on his own acting career.

Washington says he wanted to go into acting before he was 10, watching his father on the silver screen. However, by the time he was a teenager, things shifted and he feared being judged by the industry.

 “I saw how people changed when they found out who my father was. I used to lie, saying he was a construction worker or in jail, just to have some sense of normalcy” Washington said. “I felt like there was no way people would take me seriously, even if I was good. They would always judge me. So I hid who my father was. I guess I was protecting myself.”

The U.S. release date for Washington’s upcoming movie, Tenet, has been indefinitely pushed back by Warner Bros due to COVID-19. However, it might be releasing in Europe this August.

“You think it’s going to happen and they keep pushing it back. That can be disheartening,” he said. “But it’s like your child. You want to send it to the best school, even if you have to wait a semester.”

The younger Washington is most known for his role as Ron Stallworth on the Oscar award winning Spike Lee film Blackkklansman. Washington said in a CBS News interview last year that he got the role after Spike saw his work in the HBO series Ballers as well as the film Monsters and Men.