Video: In Rehearsals for OTHELLO with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal

What are you enjoying the most

Rubbing my knees, ice, Advil, PM. No, no, this is where we started

I started in the theater right up the block. This is what I love the most

This is an experience that you could do, I could probably do for the rest of my career eight nights a week

and I still wouldn't be able to dig deep enough in it, not only just because of the material

but obviously because of the lead actor here and collaborators, and also because of our director and our cast

I think, to me, eight shows a week isn't enough. Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal are returning to Broadway this spring in the Shakespeare classic Othello

directed by Kenny Leon. It's a strictly 15-week engagement beginning on February 24th

and I caught up with them and the company here at Tavern on the Green. DeZell and I've done three projects together

And he called me last December, hey, I'm going to be free January 2025

You want to do something? I said, yeah, yeah, I make myself available. And then we started talking about a play

We talked about two or three plays, and then we kind of landed on Othello

I thought that he was at, it's the right time in his career to do it, the right time in my career for me to do it

And first thing he asked was like, well, who's going to play at Iago? And I said, the person I would like

I've never worked with him before, but I've seen him on stage. I've met him before, but Jake Jillinghor will be perfect

because he has the complexity and the courage not to just play a bad guy

He would find a humanity in it. And then just said yeah I like that idea I called Jacob had two meetings with him He was like I in So now we down the road and it is probably the most challenging thing that I ever done

It also is one of the things that I've been excited by the most

The one I feel, I feel so much encouragement from it. Living in Kenny Leon's new version of this, what it's meant to the two of you

I know it's like your third week or rehearsal or whatever, what it's meant to you as artists and just what it's going to present to a new audience

It wakes up the play. It shows the brilliance of Shakespeare. It can be interpreted a lot

It has been interpreted a lot of different ways, and it's working. You know, we would know by now, I'll speak for myself

It's like, uh-oh, this ain't going to work. But it's challenging because the rules are different because of self-o

When do I use it? When do I don't? How does information get to you? So breaking down the script and putting it back together under these rules

is exhilarating and exciting for the collaborators. Absolutely. I mean, to me, also, Kenny, I think, is

what he does first is he says, how will I buy this? How will I be able to see this

How will I, what kind of posturing or fakeness will I smell

if I put it here? Oh, no, I don't buy that. I want to put here

So he found a space where he said, I can be most honest about what's going on in the world today

while bringing themes of, you know, that we've all dealt with for centuries to a modern audience

And I think he has decided, 2028, and this context delivers the most amount of truth to an audience of today

Kenny demands the truth every day And I love that because we need I need it We need it we need it we don need to be BSed we need to we need to we know what our job is and you know he taking it up there and it like okay I got to go back home and rethink this rework this and I don want them yelling at me

Kenny is such a visionary. I feel like I'm really learning a lot about what the real truth of the play is like. It is very raw

peace. It's very honest. It showcases the good and the bad of every character. I don't think

there's any heroes or villains in this play. So it's a very powerful piece about justice and about

love and what that love can look like in a landscape of conflict and war and what happens to

the soul in a place like that. So it's very, it's intense, but it has a great pace to it. It is

Pacey, the amount of time that we have to tell the story is it just keeps moving. So it is moving

ever-changing, ever-growing. It's very, very exciting. I'm vibrating right now. I'm so excited

because this is a chance to make it more relevant to where we are today. Why this story

why now, it's going to be revealed in a variety of ways. So for me, I'm in a 30-year cycle

with Othello. This is my third production of Othello. So I know this play so much in my heart and soul

so I'm very, very happy to be able to show it again. There's nothing like the live experience

Everyone in that room is experiencing something that will only be happening right then and there

And so however the scene happens that night it will not happen the same the next night or the next night or the next night So that audience is viewing something that is only existing in that present moment So there nothing that can compare

to that. And I think the ability to be a part of something like that

with legends in the room, I mean, it's like pinch me. Like one more week than you go into tech

I know. We're so close. And that's the thing is that once you can feel it's all, it's like my

my grandmother called it the smell the barn syndrome, right? Which is like you can feel

that like oh it's heating up people are about to come and then once we get into that theater you start to learn from the audience you really learn where they're with us where we've sort of lost them a little bit where they're laughing where they're crying where they can't believe it where they're sort of back footed so that's just another exciting level to add

I was very starstruck for the first like day or two like it took me like three hours to even say hello and to get to play Jake Jillen Hall's wife I'm like you know I'm just I mostly

Now that we've settled into it, I'm just really happy that I get to learn from them

Like, they're both incredibly great intentional actors. They're so curious. I mean, I have never, like, talked about a play this in depth, like, ever

You know what I mean? And I'm just learning how to be a better actor. Having a production by Kenny Leon, who is all about the simplicity of how do we connect with human beings about something that is so precious as love and jealousy

And they're both two sides of the same coin, right? And so he just wants to get more and more and more clear

And so he says all the time in the room, we're taking the Shakespeare out of Shakespeare

So we're not going to add anything to it. We're not going to take away. It's just let's just really rely on the text, on the story itself

and make that simple and clear, like an opera