As a shy, overweight boy growing up in Mt. Vernon, NY, Oscar- and Tony-winning actor Denzel Washington spent most of his time after school and on weekends at the local Boys’ Club. It was at the Boys’ Club where Washington learned to construct in the woodshop and have fun with friends in the game room. The acclaimed actor credits the Boys’ Club as being a steadying influence in his life that helped him avoid the path to prison that several of his childhood friends took.
Recently, Washington shared his inspirational message with teens from the Boys & Girls Club of Baton Rouge. His advice: Be humble. Give thanks. Give back. Put in work. Be smart. Get educated.
Washington, who is in the city filming a remake of “The Magnificent Seven” with Chris Pratt, is the national spokesperson for the Boys’ Club. He shared stories from his childhood and the lessons he’s learned throughout his life with the youth at the Baton Rouge Club. The Boys Club of Mt. Vernon helped him through trying times at home after his parents separated.
“I thought I was a man. I thought I was tougher than my mom,” he said. “I had one foot in the penitentiary. I didn’t go, but I was doing wrong things.”
Washington said the club gave him a sense of belonging and being around responsible adults helped him fall in with the “right pack” of people.
“Initially, it was just going, meeting new friends and competing, and the lessons were being laid in while you were playing basketball or running track,” Washington said. “They weren’t served up as lessons … but that’s what they became.”
He also added that, although he didn’t decide to be an actor until his junior year in college, the seeds for his career path were planted at the Boys & Girls Club. It was there that he learned that it takes more than talent to succeed.
“It’s not what you have,” he said, “it’s what you do with what you have.”
Although he has had a storied career full of accolades, including two Academy Awards and a Tony Award for his lead role in August Wilson’s Fences, Washington has remained active in the Boys & Girls Club of America. He became national spokesperson in 1992, was inducted in the Club’s Hall of Fame in 1993, joined the organization’s Board of Governors in 1996, and received the Herbert Hoover Humanitarian Award, the Club’s highest tribute to a volunteer, in 2004. In 2006, Washington wrote A Hand to Guide Me to share a message about the positive influence mentors can have on youth.
