Denzel Washington 'wouldn't have survived' if mom didn't make difficult decision -

Equalizer 3 actor Denzel Washington’s story of success and making history in Hollywood did not have an easy start! The three times Oscar-winning actor has shared how his difficult childhood helped him shape his life.

Denzel’s acting career spans almost four decades with multitudes of accolades including a Tony Award, two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and two Silver Bears. But along with his A-lister Hollywood fame, the actor has created a peaceful family life that is carefully nestled away from the limelight and many think that it is his lessons from childhood that made him the person he is.

Denzel Washington ‘wouldn’t have survived’ if mom didn’t make difficult decision

Denzel Washington’s early childhood included some utmost difficult struggles including his parents’ divorce. But later the Unstoppable star gushed about how he would not have survived without his mother’s dreams and ambitions about him that ultimately pushed him to do more.

The actor gushed: “My parents got divorced when I was 14, so I was only around my father up until that time, but it was the religious instruction which supported me. Sure I went to church. We went every Sunday – sometimes during the week as well. It wasn’t fun; when you’re young you don’t want to go to church – you want to be running around in the streets with your friends.”

He added that his mother’s wish to send him to Oakland Military Academy in upstate New York helped him “get off the streets.” He revealed, “She got me off the streets, sending me to private school and in the summers sending me to camps. That decision changed my life. At school I developed an appreciation for reading. We had one teacher who used to have us read The New York Times, and it opened up a new world to me. I started caring about what was going on outside my own environment. He introduced me to literature: Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald.”

From medicine to acting, Washington’s journey was a long one

Denzel Washington immediately did not know that acting will be his career as he started studying medicine in college. “I was studying medicine at college, but found out quickly I didn’t want to be a doctor, as I wasn’t smart enough and I was just bored,” he said in an interview.

Only at 20, Denzel decided to take acting classes which would ultimately land him roles in productions of Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones and Shakespeare’s Othello putting him in the spotlight and garnering impressive reviews.

Denzel recalled: “People are telling me I’m good, so maybe it’s something I’m supposed to do. Maybe one day I’ll make $650 a week and work on Broadway.” It was never my plan to go to Hollywood.”

The history-making Oscar

Denzel did not have to wait too long to make history in his acting career as he earned two Academy Awards within a decade of making it to Hollywood including his Best Actor Oscar snag for Training Day. Denzel became the second black performer (after Sidney Poitier) to win a Best Actor Oscar at that time writing a new page of history.