Spike Lee reveals how Denzel Washington's performance changed a key element in 'Highest 2 Lowest'
Sep 5, 2025
"The reason it's phenomenal is because of the genius of Denzel Washington!"
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No, we didn't kill nobody
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Sometimes I wanted to. And it wasn't if people on the set
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Wink, wink, wink. Wake up, y'all. The king's here. We got to pay back
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Buying back, stacking this record. It's a lot of money. There's more to life than just making money
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It's integrity. That's what you stand for. What do you think? I think you've got to be a little crazy sometimes in this world to get what you want
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King's character, for myself as a filmmaker, as an artist trying to, you know, sort of stay..
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Don't say try. You're doing it. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, it's, yeah, it's, yeah, it's finding that balance between doing the work and getting paid for and doing the work that's in my heart can sometimes be very difficult
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And I know that with King, to me, what I connected to is this man who was
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Was. That's the word. Was. Was. Yeah. And that now, you know, and that, you know, this film is about him connecting back to his roots, connecting back to the art form and to what made him to begin with
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Love to hear from you. I like to jump right here and also emphasize that scene where his wife played by Ilfenes
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Padilla great there and you're on the terrace. She says look you know
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That joy that you should get from music you know I don see it anymore So you know that right away you know that Denzel character David King
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is going through his feelings and transitional. And look, whether you're an athlete
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arch, wherever, you know, like, get to the point, like, wherever it is, too old, the ear's gone, whatever
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You're not at the zenith. Right. And that makes interesting art. It's the artist condition
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It's the human condition. Self-doubt. Self-doubt. It's huge. Yeah. And washed up
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Even in the thing. Aether Rocky says, you're washed up. You're old
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I'm not God no more, . I am. We got that generational thing, too
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I just want to talk about that final scene. where... On the train
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At the apartment where he's listening to her sing. Oh, yes. Yeah, and I mean, incredible
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performance. And you're just... I'm seeing him reconnecting in that moment. On Denzel's face, right
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Yeah, I mean, there's no one better than Denzel, but it was clear
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I got a story for you. Go for it. Remember the scene where ill-finesh
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She says, I don't see the joy in your face anymore. You see that in that last scene with Denzel Wash I like he come alive He reconnected with the music but even more than that
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listen to this though, this is the mother**** right here. That was recorded live
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Recorded live. And in the editing, I was looking at Denzel's face
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And so I said, God damn it, I got it. With reaction we see in Denzel's face
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He's thinking about What the orchestration is going to be So if you peep this
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In the song It starts out with just piano And Yana singing
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And then as we see The emotion in Denzel's face Then comes the instrumentation
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You notice that? No There's no orchestra in the room on the stage
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I was so in it. I didn't catch it. And that came from
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Denzel Washington because he was reacting to her singing, which was live, but it was just
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Aiyana singing and piano. Go to get the soundtrack. There's some point
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in the song where it becomes a full blown out orchestra. Orchestration
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Listen to the song Highest to lowest That's phenomenal But the reason why it's phenomenal
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Is because it's the genius of Denzel Watches me in the Editor room And looking at dailies And seeing Denzel face react to her music and I saying wait a minute
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He has the best ears of the business. So he's hearing this song
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It's his connection to the heavens. It feels like a heavenly explosion. Yes
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So I'm saying, I called Howard, the composer, I said, we got to write orchestration for this
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So that came in post because we were shooting this just Aiyana and piano
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That's it. That's unreal. Aiyana came from a genius of Benson Washington
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because he was David King and you saw a joy come back to his
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heart, to his soul and he was already in his mind thinking about how
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the final product is going to be what's going to release the radio on
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he's signing her and then it turns to the whole family to the end
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the son he wants to cut she just declares I'm co-chairman of the label
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and then they're like oh whoa whoa then he says you know what
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this is family I can't do that shit then he says let's
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go to work. That's the question I have for you. Can you handle it
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Oh, money ain't good money
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