There are a few reasons why Denzel Washington asked Spike Lee to direct Highest 2 Lowest, a lively reimagining of the 1963 Akira Kurosawa film High a
There are a few reasons why Denzel Washington asked Spike Lee to direct Highest 2 Lowest, a lively reimagining of the 1963 Akira Kurosawa film High and Low. The first, and perhaps deepest, has to do with the nature of the project, and what it would represent for these longtime Oscar-winning collaborators.
“In [most of] the time I’ve been an actor, I wouldn’t even have been allowed to play a part like this. No white directors were hiring us, and no studios were hiring us. We could be a slave. We could be the friend. We could be the buddy. I’ve seen it all in the 50 years I’ve been at it. And that’s why I called Spike,” Washington says. “I’ve never heard from certain other filmmakers—well, let me not go down that road. But that’s why I called Spike. I trust Spike, and he trusts me.”
Washington is sitting beside Lee for a wide-ranging interview about their latest movie, which hits theaters on August 15 via A24 before streaming on Apple TV+ on September 5. The pair are a journalist’s nightmare and a movie lover’s dream: It’s uncommon for one to get through an answer without being interrupted by the other. They laugh together in ways that indicate their deep history and friendship, having too much fun to get especially in-depth. For any fan of their incredible cinematic legacy, it’s strenuous not to be moved—or, really, entertained—by it.
That’s especially true given the subject matter of Highest 2 Lowest. The film stars Washington as David King, a trailblazing music-label executive considering the sale of his company as he faces changing times—and with them, changing tastes. He’s jolted into a different kind of action when his son is targeted in a kidnapping plot by an aspiring rapper (A$AP Rocky). The son of David’s longtime friend and chauffeur, Paul (Jeffrey Wright), is taken by mistake—leaving David with the dilemma of whether and how to pay the ransom. His odyssey reintroduces David to his elderly New York neighborhood and roots, as well as the initial artistic spark that slowly flamed out as he made his millions.
The movie crackles with the restless energy of its city and the singular, enduring creativity of its director and star. Its last line, “Let’s go to work,” sounds deceptively basic, but speaks to Highest 2 Lowest’s wealthy autobiographical undertones—and what it meant for Washington and Lee to reunite for their first movie in more than 15 years.
That also happens to be one of the last lines in Lee’s all-time favorite movie, On the Waterfront. The director wanted to pay homage, but the choice also went deeper. “It was not random—it’s because work is what we do. If I may speak for Denzel right here, we love what we do,” Lee says. “When you have an occupation that you love, you’re blessed, because the majority of the people on this earth go to their grave having hated their job.”
Washington chimes in: “It’s to have the luxury to like it or not like it.” This pumps Lee up: “There you go. Come on, now! Come on, D.”
Lee first worked with Washington on 1990’s Mo’ Better Blues. That movie was shot a few months before the release of Glory, the Civil War drama that would catapult Washington to movie stardom (and win him his first Oscar). “I’m a better filmmaker now than I was with Mo’ Better Blues,” Lee says. “Every time I’ve done a film with Denzel, I’ve learned. The brilliant actor he is has lifted up my directing, because I’m going to hear it from him if I’m not bringing it. I don’t want my brother to get my ass slapped. Can’t do that. There’s a standard we have.”
Together, they’ve made a masterpiece in Malcolm X, a box-office smash in Inside Man, and now, their most personal undertaking yet. As a professor at New York University, Lee teaches at least one of his movies starring Washington every semester. (“Sometimes it’s Malcolm X fall and spring semester.”) Next month, Washington will actually join the director on campus.
“I’ve agreed to come to class,” the actor says. “Where we at? What month is it?”
“Beginning of September,” Lee replies. “On a Thursday.” They go back and forth about the timing before Lee says, “I’m looking forward to the questions my intelligent students at NYU Film School will have for Mr. Washington.”
All of their projects live inside them, a specific kind of language they can’t always explain. While discussing the cast of Highest 2 Lowest—decorated actors like Wendell Pierce, John Douglas Thompson, and Michael Potts also among them—Washington says, “Teamwork makes the dream work.”
“Where’s that from?” Lee asks, knowingly.
“I don’t know,” Washington says.
“He Got Game! You had the kid out doing laps until 4:00 a.m. in the morning. You knocked him down. He got mad. He threw a ball.”
“That’s right,” Washington says, recalling their acclaimed sports movie. “I haven’t seen that movie since.” As in, not since 1998? “I don’t watch them. Once I make them, I’m done with them.”
Washington does not remember how Highest 2 Lowest got to him in the first place. “I had never seen High and Low,” he says. “Still haven’t.” But he knew the script by Alan Fox seemed like a natural fit for Lee. “Out of nowhere, my brother called me and said, ‘I’ve got this project. I want to send it.’ I said, ‘What?’” Lee says. They hadn’t yet realized it’d been so long since their last movie, 2006’s Inside Man. Once they got to work, it was like no time had passed.
What kinds of conversations did they have about the movie before production started? “Here’s the other reason I called Spike—so we wouldn’t have to do any of those,” Washington says. “He knows what he’s doing. I know what I’m doing.” Lee approached Highest 2 Lowest as anything but a remake. “I took this as a jazz reinterpretation of a great film,” he says. “I knew if I was to do this, it had to be a reimagining. And it was right up my alley—a big, fat, juicy one coming down the middle of the plate. And I feel like I knocked it out.”
Highest 2 Lowest debuted to powerful reviews at the Cannes Film Festival. At the premiere’s official press conference, Lee said that he expected this to be the final movie he made with Washington, given that the actor had been publicly discussing retirement. Lee has since walked that comment back. “I have to stop saying it,” Lee says. “I hope it will happen [again].” I pose the question to Washington next, since he has considered retiring in the past. The actor responds by quoting what appears to be a lengthy passage, verbatim, from Matt Chandler’s 2012 book The Explicit Gospel, sent to Washington “by my guy Sal.”
No matter what our job is, we view it not as our purpose in life, but rather as where God has sovereignly placed us for the purpose of making Christ known and his name great. If you are a teacher, if you are a politician, if you are a businessman, if you are in agriculture, if you are in construction, if you are in technology, if you are in the arts, then you should not be saying, ‘I need to find my life’s purpose in this work,’ but rather, ‘I need to bring God’s purpose to this work.’
Meaning? “I no longer use the word retirement,” Washington says. “I’m looking for opportunities to bring God’s purpose to my work. That’s where I’m at.” He then reads the passage aloud in full again.
In Cannes, Highest 2 Lowest played like gangbusters in a packed theater. Audiences were particularly glued to a riveting train sequence at the movie’s midpoint, and the climactic tete-a-tete between Washington and Rocky’s characters. This movie is made for the substantial screen, and Lee and Washington want to make that very clear in this interview. “No matter how big that TV on the wall in your home is, see it in theaters first,” Lee says.
By my count, they mention its August 15 theatrical release date five different times. “In the theaters, in the theaters, in the theaters,” Washington says at one point. “I’ll keep saying August 15.” But Highest 2 Lowest will only get a confined rollout on the substantial screen before going to streaming. Given that their last movie made north of $186 million at the global box office, are they disappointed with how Highest 2 Lowest is getting distributed?
“That’s the nature of the business now—they also gave us a lot of money to make the film,” Washington says. “The industry has changed. Time has changed. So we’ve got to change with the times.” Lee adds, “This film would not have been made without Apple. That’s just the truth.”
“We’d done this four times already, and the last time was a great box office success,” Lee continues. “Not to say that all success is built upon box office, but—”
“But it is called show business,” Washington interjects. “No business, no show. No business, no next show.”
Lee laughs. “That’s true. We understand the ramifications of this business.”
This brings Washington back to the shorthand between them, and why he brought his elderly friend along for this film. “It’s trust,” he says. “There was only one person to do this. And I’m sitting next to him.”
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