A biography for John David Washingtonhasn’t been written yet.
“I can only control what I can, which is what I'm able to do as an artist.”
“Football was the best route to obtain my independence.”
“I got a lot of whoopings back in the day. I was a very curious kid.”
“It's a beautiful thing when you serve the team.”
“Hate is a problem.”
“I'm from the old school; hard work pays off.”
“I wanna work with filmmakers that love, are enthusiastic about their process - about the process - about their process and the environment of inclusion and collaboration. I want the people to be able to trust me, and I wanna be able to trust them.”
“I've gotten rejected hundreds of times.”
“The injury that ended my time in football turned out to be serendipitous. I tore my Achilles while training for a pending tryout with the New York Giants, and when it snapped, so did my career, basically. That's what led me to gain the confidence to get into the acting world on my own terms.”
“A lot of NFL guys are misunderstood.”
“I want to be around people that are just as enthusiastic about the process and storytelling as I am.”
“On a Spike Lee set, everybody seems to want to be there and is motivated to work in unison and do the best they can.”
“Coming from a football background, when everybody is doing their job and operating on such a high level, it only motivates you to do the same.”
“Football is the ultimate team sport. You're dependent on 10 other people on the field to have success on a particular play to get to the common goal, which is the win. On a set, we need everybody doing their job and pulling their weight.”
“Being able to tell people's stories - this is the most exciting job in the world to me.”
“I knew every one of my father's lines in 'Glory' - I broke the VHS tape - but I hid my love of acting to make it as my own man.”
“I've failed a lot, you know, in football, and I've gone on a lot of auditions, been told no, been told I'm not right, so I know what failure feels like. It's about the work.”
“Reinaldo Marcus Green - I'm so blessed an honored to have worked with him.”
“A Ryan Coogler film? I'm there for it.”
“There's some men and women out there that are doing their job the right way. They're protecting and serving complete strangers in their communities the right way. And it's a thankless job. Obviously, there's a lot of information out on cops not doing their jobs correctly, but the ones that are should be celebrated.”