One of Denzel Washington’s most iconic movies, which truly shows his superb acting chops, is easily Training Day. The crime thriller film tells the story of a movie cop who doesn’t exactly follow the rules while training a rookie (played by Ethan Hawke) to be an L.A. narcotics officer. Today, the film is highly regarded as a classic by a number of cinephiles. But, if you can believe it, the movie’s director, Antoine Fuqua, says test audiences “were pissed” over the movie. There, is however, an understandable explanation for that.
Before being cast in Training Day, Denzel Washington had already been solidifying his position as one of the greatest actors of his generation via movies like Glory, Malcolm X and Remember the Titans. Antoine Fuqua told Collider that when test audiences watched his crime drama, they had a very emotional response to a massive scene in the movie, which affected how the test screening scores:
Training Day didn’t score high in the test screening because I killed Denzel. People were pissed. [Laughs] I almost got ran out of the theater on that one. That was probably the lowest test screening.
I can understand why audiences wouldn’t want to see the beloved actor die on screen, even if his character was a boss who got what was coming to him. With this acclaimed film, viewers see in a 24-hour period a rookie cop training with Denzel Washington’s Alonzo who’s a highly decorated narcotics officer. The problem rises when it’s revealed that Alonzo being just as corrupt as the people he busts. The character also uses his power as a cop to get away with theft, drug use, assault and murder. Alonzo meets his demise when he tries to flee from the Russian mob he owes money to, only for them to stop him in his tracks and gun him down in his car.
Even if the characters downfall was inevitable, it’s still heartbreaking to see a beloved actor like Denzel Washington have to be the one to die on camera. While test audiences didn’t like seeing Washington get shot, an interesting BTS fact of Training Day is that it was actually the Philadelphia actor’s idea to end the movie that way. Originally, Alonzo was supposed to live, but Washington fought to change the ending once recalling, “I was not having it.”
The star’s role in the movie panned out, as it won him his second Oscar. Considering Antoine Fuqua felt like he caught lightning in a bottle getting to work when working with the leading man, they continued their collaboration with the Equalizer movies and The Magnificent Seven.
It’s still somewhat funny to think that viewers were “pissed” over the fact that Denzel Washington’s character died at the end of the movie. What can probably be gathered from that, though, is that Washington is just such an endearing actor that he can charm audiences in any role — even one as twisted as a corrupt, murderous cop.
Anyone who’d like to revisit Training Day or watch it for the first time should know that it’s available now on Tubi. You’ll also be able to catch Antoine Fuqua’s critically praised film when it becomes streamable with a Paramount+ subscription, starting on August 1st.