The Interview: Denzel Washington Has Finally Found His Purpose

So many of Denzel Washington’s greatest performances — from the majestic title role in “Malcolm X” to the unrepentantly corrupt cop Alonzo Harris in “Training Day” — have been defined by a riveting sense of authority, an absolute absence of pandering or the need to be liked.There’s an inner reserve deep down inside his characters that is unassailable, a little enigmatic, and that belongs to them alone.The commanding qualities that have helped Washington become a cinematic legend are also, as I learned firsthand, the same ones that make him an unusual — and unusually complicated — conversationalist.

The first of our two discussions was done remotely.He was at a photo studio in Los Angeles as the fires were still burning there, and I was at home in New Jersey.

Even putting our physical distance aside, the discussion felt, well, distant.Or let me put it this way: We never quite figured out how to connect.The second time we talked, it was different.

I met Washington in person, at a spare, drafty room in a Midtown Manhattan building where he was rehearsing for an upcoming Broadway appearance.He’s playing the lead in a new production of “Othello” that goes into previews on Feb.

24; it co-stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Iago and is directed by the Tony Award winner Kenny Leon.I can’t with any certainty really say why, but things just felt easier on the second go-round.

What I do know, though, is that the entire interview experience was, for me, as indelible as one of his performances.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | iHeart | NYT Audio AppI saw that at the end of last year you were baptized and earned your minister’s license.I got baptized, and I have to now take courses to obtain a license.

I’m not an ordained minister.Can you tell me about the decision to go through that process at this point in your life? I went for a ride one day.I decided to get in my car and drive up to Harlem.

I stopped in front of the church th...