Washington turned down love scene with Roberts

LOS ANGELES: Denzel Washington turned down a love scene with Julia Roberts, because she wasn’t black.

The Déjà Vu actor was cast opposite the Oscar-winning actress in The Pelican Brief on Roberts’ own insistence, but he refused to take part in the sex scene in the original script out of loyalty to his female African-American fans.

According to Newsweek journalist Allison Samuels’ new book Off the Record, Washington said, “Black women are not often seen as objects of desire on film. And they have always been my core audience.”

Washington also revealed he turned down the lead role in Love Field with Michelle Pfeiffer because of the film’s use of the word n****r. He said, “It was n****r this and n****r that. I wasn’t going to be one of many n****rs in a film.”