Denzel Washington has recalled the time he met a young Drake, and revealed he passed on some advice that the 6 God never forgot.
The acclaimed actor spoke about the encounter during an interview with Good Morning America while celebrating the opening of the Boys and Girls Club’s 5,000th location. Washington, who serves as the club’s national spokesperson, said that the club changed his life when he was a kid.
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“I’m still that six-year-old wide-eyed kid who’s curious about life,” he said. “I was being taught about grace, about winning with grace and losing with grace, and being a leader and all of these things.”
The Training Day star then spoke about how the small interactions he has with the club’s children could potentially change their lives forever — and in the case of one kid, it did just that.
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“I met a kid in Toronto who came up and was fascinated because I was this star and he wanted to talk to me and he couldn’t believe that he met me,” Washington recalled.
“Well, 10, 15 years later he came up and he said, ‘You don’t remember when you met me.’ I said, ‘No.’ His name is Drake and he said, ‘What I said to him he never forgot.'”
Drake likely meant what he said because the Her Loss hitmaker got a tattoo of Denzel Washington back in 2017. The portrait was of Washington’s fictional jazz trumpeter character, Bleek Gilliam, from Spike Lee’s 1990 movie Mo’ Better Blues.
“I heard about this,” Washington said on The Tonight Show later that year while reacting to Drake’s tattoo tribute. “Now you got me wondering: where is that? That’s crazy.”
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T.I. also recently recalled an influential pep talk Denzel Washington gave him while the pair were on the set of 2007’s American Gangster.
During an appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast earlier this year, the Atlanta-bred rapper/actor said Denzel approached him after he spotted him looking nervous before a scene.
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“As we’re rehearsing, I’m pacing back and forth, pacing back and forth,” he explained. “And he said, ‘What’s up, n-gga? You nervous?’ I’m like, ‘Man, I’m just making sure I don’t mess it up.’
“He said, ‘Here man, listen. They could have had anybody in here doing what you’re doing right now. They could have anybody in the world, they could have called anybody right here to do what you’re doing.’”
He continued: “I said, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ He said, ‘They called you for a reason didn’t they?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘You know what that reason is?’ I started thinking and I said, ‘Yeah, I do.’ He said, ‘Alright then, do that and you ain’t got no reason to be nervous.’
JAY-Z is also incredibly close to the 68-year-old acting legend, and was seen and attempting to calm him down during a heated argument at an L.A. Lakers game in February.
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In the viral clip, which was recorded at the Lakers’ match-up against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Washington can be seen yelling at someone on the sidelines, before Hov steps in and successfully diffuses the situation.
The pair are then seen throwing their arms around each other before laughing and smiling as they walk back to their seats.
