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"While filming his starring role in the new movie &amp;quot;Flight,&amp;quot; which opens November 2, actor Denzel Washington plays a pilot who&amp;apos;s lauded for landing a crashing flight, but then comes under fire when it&amp;apos;s discovered that he had alcohol in his system at the time of the incident. His character, Whip Whitaker, is considered by many to be an alcoholic. So this would&amp;apos;ve been the perfect opportunity for Washington, who revealed in a 1986 interview with Essence that he was giving up alcohol, to hit the bottle hard &amp;#x2014; but that&amp;apos;s not what happened. Instead, Washington, who now says he only &amp;quot;semi-quit&amp;quot; alcohol back in the &amp;#x2018;80s, gave up booze for all 45 days of filming.\r\n&amp;quot;We&amp;apos;ve all tied one on,&amp;#x201D; the 57-year-old says in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter. &amp;#x201C;But if I had been drinking while I was shooting, it&amp;#x2019;d be harder to stay disciplined, just to get up in the morning. You are a little more hung over, grouchier. I knew this was an excellent opportunity, and a really good story. So it was something I wanted to do right.&amp;quot; Still, Washington is quick to note that his teetotaling policy wasn&amp;apos;t permanent. &amp;quot;But I haven&amp;apos;t given it up forever.&amp;quot;\r\nWashington, who reveals he packed on 20 pounds for his role in &amp;#x201C;Flight,&amp;#x201D; is incredibly disciplined any time he&amp;apos;s on a set. He even occasionally takes a method approach to his acting. &amp;quot;In [2012 hit] &amp;apos;Safe House,&amp;apos; I played what I thought was a sociopath, and I wasn&amp;apos;t in a chitchatting mood unless I could manipulate you, unless I could win. That&amp;#x2019;s what a sociopath is,&amp;quot; says Washington, who&amp;apos;s been married to Pauletta since 1983. &amp;quot;It just goes back to the way I&amp;apos;ve worked for a very long time: stay with what I am doing. Nobody goes, &amp;apos;Man, he sucked in that picture, but I bet he was nice to everybody!&amp;#x2019;&amp;quot;\r\nBy now, after hits like &amp;quot;Philadelphia,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Fallen,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Remember the Titans,&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Training Day,&amp;quot; Washington can do just about any project he wants in Hollywood. But he&amp;apos;s very aware of the fact that many other black actors, particularly women, have a tough time in Hollywood. &amp;quot;And the darker the woman, definitely,&amp;quot; he notes. &amp;quot;But then it&amp;apos;s all relative: The 40-year-old whatever-color woman says, &amp;apos;Well, you know, the 30-year-old is getting all the jobs.&amp;apos;&amp;quot;\r\nSomeone Washington has chosen to work with on five films, including 1995&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;Crimson Tide&amp;quot; and 2004&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;Man on Fire,&amp;quot; is the late director and producer Tony Scott. So when Scott committed suicide by jumping off an L.A. bridge on August 19, Washington was left reeling. The two didn&amp;apos;t talk regularly, Washington says, but they obviously respected one another. &amp;quot;I was shocked by his death. I&amp;apos;m still shocked. If you had given me a list of 25 people, I don&amp;#x2019;t think I&amp;#x2019;d have picked him,&amp;quot; Washington says. &amp;quot;You don&amp;#x2019;t know. You just don&amp;apos;t know. You don&amp;#x2019;t know what&amp;apos;s inside a man&amp;apos;s head.&amp;quot;\r\nMore celebrity features on Yahoo!:\r\nThe creepiest celebs of 2012 (photos)\r\nBrad Pitt puts his money where his mouth is with major donation\r\nCelebs in disguise (photos)\r\nFollow omg! on Twitter"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/denzel-washington-says-he-gave-up-booze-while-filming-flight-20123110>