Cozart: The first day of rehearsal, Wesley Snipes took me to lunch in Venice. He said to me, “I know what happened. Realize this, you’re going to have your shot. One day you’re going to be in the position I’m in and you’re going to be playing a character someone else was up for.” It made me feel good.
Come press day, he said, “I’m going to bring you in because I’m going to get more press but I want everyone to know who you are. I’m not going to do to you what Denzel did to me.” He didn’t know that Denzel and I are good friends. “We did a movie with Spike and I was supposed to play the lead and then Denzel called Spike, said he wanted to play the lead role and I took a secondary role. Denzel promised to introduce me to the national press on press day, though. Press day came and Denzel didn’t even look at me.”
Guess what happened? Press day came and I was sitting off to the side while everyone was with Wesley, Woody, and Rosie. I’m thinking Wesley is going to come get me and introduce me. One by one the press was leaving. I got really angry. Wow, he did to me what he said Denzel did to him. That’s kind of cold.
This made me rethink why we never saw another Denzel/Wesley movie...at first I thought Hollywood didn't want to see two powerful black men on the screen together. But now I'm thinking....have you ever seen Denzel since Mo Better Blues (which wasn't a duo movie) share screen time with another male black actor on his A list status level? Not Will Smith, not Morgan Freeman, not Sam Jackson, not Lawrence Fishburne nobody during the 90s.
MAYBE we're not seeing the team ups and combos we'd like to see not just because Hollywood is racist but because there isn't much solidarity as we think among the black celebs there.