Bronson Pinchot is trying to explain his way out of the mini-Internet feud that came to light yesterday between himself, Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington after the actor, best known as Balki from the 1980s TV series Perfect Strangers, told the Onion’s A.V. Club that Cruise made “constant unrelated homophobic comments” while the two were on the set of Risky Business. He also is quoted saying Washington is “one of the most unpleasant human beings I’ve ever met.”
Pinchot responded to e-mailed questions from the Wall Street Journal. Some highlights: Pinchot says he wasn’t joking about his comments regarding Cruise, rather he was responding to the question, “What was Cruise like at the time?” Pinchot says he was surprised by Cruise’s homophobic language because of Pinchot’s own theater background where no one talked like that. “In hindsight, for a 20-year-old with no background in theater, such language is actually unremarkable. Which I did not know at 23.” In regards, to Washington, Pinchot amends his statement to say, “I found his willingness to be ungenerous, unkind, knowingly hurtful both mentally and physically to myself and the crew to be the saddest misuse of stardom I have ever experienced or hope to experience.”
Oh, so that’s what you meant. You can read the full-email exchange here.
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Team Pinchot!
denzel is incredibly overrated , how does he win an oscar for ‘training day’ ? its a decent movie at best. then again, obama got his nobel prize for what exactly?
What does Denzel Washington and a Oscar have to do with Obama and Nobel Peace Prize? That is a huge jump to connect them.
Unless you are only going by the social classing that is race. Then you may just be ignorant.
the point has little to do with race, but the fact that both men have recieved what used to be high accolades in certain fields for doing nothing especially worthy of their respective prize.
And while not politically correct, it would be ignorant not to realize that for better or worse, race does play a role in the world, don’t be naive.
really, is anyone surprise that denzel is a jerk? he’s one of the most arrogant actors out there. it’s hard to be humble i suppose when the whole world bows at your feet everytime you make a horrible movie with tony scott.
I am surprised. I was never aware that he was a jerk. I would have guessed intense, but intense is very different from what Pinchot is talking about. How disappointing; I always liked Denzel.
I always wondered why he never does the talk show circuits. Maybe this is why.
I’ve actually worked with Denzel and found him to be polite, professional and incredibly good-natured even after a long day.
Yeah, right.
I know two people who worked with him on separate occasions. One thought him very nice, the other thought he was an arrogant jerk. Go figure.
I was an extra in 2 of his films, and witnessed first hand a very heated almost physical confrontation between Denzel and actor James Gandolfini on the set of “Crimson Tide”, he was merely just rude and arrogant on the set of “Virtuosity” where I worked as a Stand in!
After the filming of the movie where Washington was a drug lord, most of the cast and crew came away with the same opinion as Pinchot. It was quite well known – I’m sure you can dig up the comments online.
I am NOT surprised AT ALL.
Word, Steve.
Denzel Washington’s personality strikes me as Kanye West’s with a filter… a failing filter, but a filter nonetheless.
Can’t you pick another jerk who isn’t black? There’re plenty to choose from! Or is your sensitivity filter failing?
Are we allowed to compare him to an Asian or Hispanic jerk? Or only white ones?
Kanye is still at the forefront of our minds and I don’t think it means someone is racially insensitive because he is the first “jerk” they think of.
what do either of you 2 nobodies know about Denzel Washington ?? He’s an academy award winning actor who has starred in some of the most significant movies of our generation. Just because another nobody tries to throw him undewr the bus with below the belt cheap shots you losers are ready to jump on board. mosquitoe bites cant bring down a giant-steve, meier, brochon-get a life !
lol brochon.
plenty of academy award winners are a-holes. get out from under your delusional rock. celebrities aren’t perfect.
Well said Ferrealz!
You’re right, Francis. Let’s put Denzel up on a pedestal and all bow down. It shouldn’t matter that you have NO IDEA what kind of human being he actually is, despite many rumors of his ego and generally nasty demeanor.
I dunno about the “significant movies of our generation” thing. I’ll give you “Philadelphia,” but outside of that his pictures are fairly unremarkable. Though he’s definitely always good in them.
Also Glory to be fair.
I’m sorry, put “Glory” was one on the most real and raw portraits of American slavery I have ever seen. I don’t know about his personality, but he has done wonders for actors within the African American community.
Look he may be overated but he has had some significant roles. You can add X for starters.
Dude, get a grip. Are you Denzel’s relative or something? Plus how do you know the people posting are nobodies? Oh, that’s right you don’t so you are doing the same thing you are criticizing them for. He is a good actor (not great) who has been fortunate in the roles he has received but has also made PLENTY of stinkers. And he does come across as arrogant at times. Seems to me you might be the big loser here.
Lighten up Francis!!! (Go see the movie Stripes if you don’t know the quote)
LOL! BlackIrish, I LOVE that quote in the movie Stripes and what a perfect retort indeed to someone named Francis!
Roman Polanski has an Academy Award too.
hahaha.. Nice.
I am not going to make assumptions about Cruise or Washington, but not about PInchot, either — the man knows them both personally (which I do not) and has a right to his own opinion, whether most people would agree with it or not. I know that at some point, Pinchot and Cruise got along better, so maybe TC learned as he got older — which seems to be the suggestion of Pinchot’s later comment.
When you are gay you frequently make anti-gay remarks. I think this was what he was originally trying to allude to. Don’t back down Bronson.
Denzel was just being method on and off set and his character didn’t like Balki’s character.
The fact that Denzel stars in good movies and wins an academy award does not preclude him from being a jerk. There have been numerous other accounts of Denzel being a jerk, going all the way back to St. Elsewhere.
‘Numerous accounts’ didn’t seem to hurt his reputation as a great actor–again nobodies trying to bring down talented people to your level–denzel is an actor and a great one–little people will always try to bring down big people–the sad part is nobody cares what you think about him as a person–your opinion gleened by what you’ve read and ‘heard’ are like drops of water in the ocean irrelevant–if it’s makes you feel better to call him a ‘jerk’ when you’ve never had 2 words with him it says more about you than him–get a life !!
You seem to have a problem with the concept that someone can be a great actor AND a jerk. Buy a clue and realize that it can happen, or confess that you are personally connected to Washington and trying to blunt the criticism.
Personally, I don’t agree that he’s a great actor either. The year he and Halle Berry (Halle Berry!?!) won was a travesty. Washington is a solid, if unremarkable actor with a reputation of being nasty when things aren’t going his way.
He’s a very good actor who has gotten some great roles, not a great actor. Training Day is so over the top, much easier to win an Oscar as an over the top bad guy but he was excellent in Glory and Philadelphia. Still doesn’t mean he’s not an @sshole. You know, kind of like you are. Lighten up Francis!!!!
I love how this gets 11 comments on EW.com and there’s just one on the actual source blog. EW rules!!
lol!
If you really want to go to the source, that would be here:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/bronson-pinchot,34310/
where there are 531 comments. The lack of comments at WSJ could be explained by the fact that it’s the WSJ, not a pop rag.
LMAO!!
Funny how Beyonce,Lady Gaga and Jay-z were only responding to questions(about Kanye) and got blasted for their opinions. Not in this case though, funny.
lady gaga rules the world…
They were defending an idiot – not the same thing as this.
Not jumping on the “what an idiot” train is not defending someone. And it is the same as this, those celebrities I names were asked about their opinion, just like Pinchot was. Yet they were bashed for their opinions on the subject, amazing the double standard.
Yeah, maybe it’s r@acial picking on poor Denzel and Kanye.
He answered their question. What’s the big deal? Honesty is good. He obviously doesn’t give a F*ck.
some people make no sense. this guy says denzel is a jerk. many people such as halle berry, tom hanks and julia roberts have said denzel is a great guy. what makes this one guy’s opinion more credible than the others? the dimmest thing a person can do is accept someone else’s opinion of a person they’ve never met. let’s say you meet denzel one day and he’s a great guy. what does that mean then? have you ever stopped to think there may be multiple people who have differing opinions of you, but none of those opinions can define you?
So what you’re saying is that we should only take the positive opinions and ignore the negative ones?????? Of course people we see on tv being nice to other people we see on tv makes them great people.
you obviously need some help with reading comprehension.
Why is everyone saying he’s a jerk? So what if his first impression of Tom Cruise wasn’t so great? Maybe you mean he shouldn’t talk about his costars frankly or that he should lie about his impression? The fact is that none of us have met him in real life so for all we know he’s just an honest guy. Then again he could also be a jerk. Maybe if someone has an opinion that does not involve a article and actually involves them meeting this person…
This is hysterical. I think it is so funny that people would beleive Denzel Washington is a bad guy when the source is Balki. i mean, Balki. As in, “the only major thing I did was use a funny accent and repeatedly say ‘now we do the dance of joy’ on a cheesy ’80’s sitcom’ Balki.” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
So only an A-List actor’s opinion of an individual or account of a situation be credible? Of course “Balki” isn’t capable of recognizing a jerk!
Plus Balki was great in True Romance!! And the movie with the psychic detectives, lol…
“Balki” strikes me as more intelligent and talented than most “stars” who make millions on their looks and ability to basically play themselves repeatedly.
I saw an interview in Mexico with Denzel. Yes, he was arrogant and made terrible racist comments to the Mexican press! I just can’t stand a racist hypocrite like that!