Spike Lee on Denzel Washington, whether he'd do Marvel and the Viagra musical he still wants to make

Lee is no stranger to re-working Asian cinema. He previously took on 2003’s bloodthirsty Oldboy, the South Korean-made revenge thriller directed by Park Chan-wook. His remake, a decade on, starred Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Olsen. Now he’s back with his long-term collaborator Denzel Washington, who plays David King, a New York music mogul and the owner of the label Stackin’ Hits. “He’s considered, in the music business, to have the best ears,” says Lee.

When King’s son Trey (Aubrey Joseph) is seemingly taken, King’s world appears to be crumbling. A ransom of 17.5 million Swiss francs is set. But as with Kurosawa’s yarn, the wrong boy is snatched – the son to King’s best friend and driver, Paul (Jeffrey Wright). “For me, I think the foundation of the film is morality,” says Lee, alluding to the dilemma King faces. Pay the ransom or risk being lambasted on social media. With King and Paul’s sons both teenagers, it’s one of several differences to the Kurosawa version, in which the kidnap victim is a child.

“With his son being older, it emphasises, for me, more the father-son relationship, because he’s at the age of a young man, and he goes this way or that way. Here’s the thing: this is a reinterpretation, not a remake. So when you reinterpret something, you’re making changes, right? It’s not the same. With the upmost respect, it would be impossible to remake it. Also, it’s different cultures. That film was post-war Japan, 1963. This is modern day New York City.”

Lee is brazen enough to take on a film most will associate with Kurosawa, a risky move in some eyes. “I got introduced to Mr. Kurosawa when I was in NYU grad film school. Rashomon was related to my first feature film, She’s Gotta Have It,” he says. Indeed, his 1986 debut, about a woman and her relationships with three men was inspired by Kurosawa’s 1950 crime film, which examined the same events from different perspectives.

Did he feel he was able to explore modern-day Black America in Highest 2 Lowest? “I did not just turn African-American for this film,” he says. “That’s who I am. So that’s infused in the films I do. And it’s also the artwork. Look at the artwork, on the wall. Basquiat, you got all these things. And it’s the music that’s chosen, the characters that are here. So I did not have to flip a switch for Blackness to be in this and at the same time respecting what the great Akira Kurosawa did in his film from 1963.”

As it happens, Lee did not originate the project. It actually came via Washington, who last worked with the director on his 2006’s bank robbery tale Inside Man – the biggest box office hit of Lee’s career (taking $186 million worldwide). “He called me up…he said, ‘It takes place in New York. I’m sending the script.’ Hung up the phone on me practically, and I just said, ‘I’m in’ before I ever read the script. And then I see [that it’s] Kurosawa! Let’s go! Let’s go!” says Lee, excitedly.

Lee was shocked when he discovered that it’d been almost two decades since he worked with Washington. “I did not even know that that many years had expired till journalists brought it up. I didn’t know. We’ve seen each other during that time…so I don’t think our relationship is just based upon the time we’re working together. So we see each other and our families are together. Our wives definitely. So that’s maybe the reason why I didn’t think about it.”

He and Washington first worked together back in 1990’s Mo’ Better Blues, with Lee directing and co-starring in this jazz-infused tale. Just Lee’s fourth movie, it came directly after 1989’s incendiary race relations tale Do The Right Thing, which saw him nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and truly put Lee on the map. Two years later, they made Malcolm X, which saw Washington up for an Academy Award for playing the revered Black Nationalist leader, before reuniting for 1998’s basketball drama He Got Game.

“Speaking from my heart, it was just a joy to be with my brother, Denzel, working together as a team, individuals that trust each other,” he says. But even if he hadn’t noticed the gap in time – partly because he worked with Washington’s son John David Washington on 2018’s BlacKkKlansman, the film that finally won Lee an Oscar for Best Screenplay – others did. “Every now and then I would show Inside Man to my film class [Lee is a tenured professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts]. We always have Q&A and my students say, ‘So when’s the next time you’re working with Denzel?’”

With the film so deeply entrenched in the music industry, that feels spot-on for Lee, who has been working with musicians his whole career. As a student at NYU, he directed an unofficial video for Grandmaster Flash’s White Lines (Don’t Do It). Since then, he’s filmed promos for Prince, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Kelly Rowland and The Killers, to name just a handful. He’s also made music documentaries, notably Bad 25 – which chronicled the making of Jackson’s album Bad.

“Michael Jackson told me, ‘Spike, don’t say music video.’ He used to keep reminding me.” He starts to impersonate Jackson’s famed high-pitched accent, before revealing that sometimes his voice could turn into a growl. “[He’d go] ‘Spike, I’m not going to tell you anymore. We’re not doing music videos. We’re doing short films!’ Sometimes we were shooting one of those things...someone say, ‘Spike, Spike. Spike.’ I’m like, ‘Who’s calling me?’ I turn around, ‘Oh, what do you want Michael? I didn’t even recognise you!’ True story."

On Highest 2 Lowest, he cast rapper (and partner to Rihanna) A$AP Rocky, who had previously acted in 2018’s Monster – alongside John David Washington. The film was produced by Lee’s wife, Tonya Lewis Lee. “I knew he could act. From that he wasn’t posing. I mean, a lot of times, historically, there have been musicians in films. I understand that. But he’s a serious actor. He would not been in a film if that wasn’t the case.”

Lee cast him in a role not a million miles from the Harlem-born Rocky’s own life – a rapper from the streets named Yung Felon. “He came for a semi audition. I didn’t tell him it was an audition, but we just had him come in. Denzel and I just read a couple of scenes, but he was the guy, no doubt. I mean, he’s multi-talented.” Rocky’s also not the only rapper in the film, with the 25-year-old Ice Spice making her feature debut here too.

The film certainly offers up a potent portrayal of modern-day showbiz. “It asks a question, ‘What’s the value of talent? Are you gonna put followers and fame over talent?’ And that’s a big, big thing. At least it’s how the entertainment world is running today.” Lee even took to social media to seek out new talent for the movie. “Three or four people in this film, I found on Instagram,” he says.

While Lee has made 25 feature films (as well as numerous documentaries), if there’s one thing he’s never done, it’s direct a big superhero blockbuster. “Marvel’s never asked me to do a film yet,” he shrugs. “They got my brother [Ryan Coogler] who does Black Panther.” So would he ever do it, if the opportunity arose? “It’d have to be the right film, the right superhero.” Maybe he could do a Nick Fury movie, taking on the character played by Samuel L Jackson across multiple Marvel movies. Like with Washington, Jackson and Lee have worked together multiple times, going back to his second movie School Daze.

Does he have a film he still wants to get made? “Hopefully one day – a musical. The origin of Viagra!” he reveals. Titled ‘Boner’, this tale about the famed impotence medication, he’s been working on it for several years. “Hopefully we’ll get it. It’s a musical, singing and dancing! It’s about the origin. Pfizer. The blue pill.” Now that would make a perfect show-stopping finale to an illustrious career.

Highest 2 Lowest is in cinemas and streams on Apple TV+ from September 5.

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