As Spike Lee rolls out what could be his final collaboration with Denzel Washington, the filmmaker might have found a new muse.
While discussing their new A24 movie Highest 2 Lowest, premiering in theaters on Aug. 22 before it’s available on Apple TV+ on Sept. 5, the 3x Oscar winner praised A$AP Rocky for going “toe-to-toe” with Washington as father and son in the
“Yeah, don’t sleep on A$AP. In this film, Denzel and A$AP go toe-to-toe,” he said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “What’s interesting is, even before I got involved with this film, I always thought that A$AP looked like he could be Denzel’s son. There’s a big resemblance. So when you see it on the screen, it adds an element of father and son.”
Lee added, “Don’t sleep on A$AP. I’ve done five films with Denzel, and a lot of times when he’s in a scene with somebody, they just get overwhelmed. He’s one of the greatest living actors today, but A$AP wasn’t having that. Toe-to-toe, I mean, they were going at it.”
A reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 Japanese film High and Low, Lee’s latest directorial outing stars Washington as a titan music mogul, widely known as having the “best ears in the business,” who is targeted with a life-or-death ransom plot.
Denzel Washington in ‘Highest 2 Lowest’
Marking his fifth collaboration with Washington—after Mo’ Better Blues (1990), Malcolm X (1992), He Got Game (1998) and Inside Man (2006)—Lee previously revealed Highest 2 Lowest could be his final time directing the 2x Oscar-winning actor.
“I think this is it — five,” said Lee at the Cannes premiere in May. “He’s been talking about retirement, even though he’s just done another deal. Five films together, they stand up.”
