Mens Journal

outside the organization and Washington

was back in the stands.

The next year following a workout with

the Houston Texans general manager Rick

Smith told him he would never make it back to

the NFL. Driven to prove him wrong Wash-

ingtonspentfourseasonsintheUFLwiththe

Sacramento Mountain Lions where he played

under former NFL coach Dennis Green and

took handoffs from onetime Vikings QB

Daunte Culpepper. Washington was second-

string but he led the team with 4.2 yards per

carry. In the lone start of his professional

career with Denzel pacing the sidelines John

“IF I TRY TO ACT

LIKE HIM I’M

GOING TO FAIL.

I CAN’T DO THAT.

NOBODY CAN.”

David ran for 114 yards and a touchdown on

14 carries.

He thought that might get him another

shot in the NFL but in a training session

with pro players that included Antonio

Cromartie and Colin Kaepernick Wash-

ington jumped during an explosion drill

and felt a pop. He’d torn his Achilles tendon

and his hopes were over. Three weeks later he

received a call from Jaffe to try out forBallers.

Washington limped into the first of his

11 auditions forBallers on crutches and with

his right foot in a walking boot zoned out

on painkillers and with a bushy beard that

he blames on a post-injury funk. The produc-

ers decided to incorporate the whiskers into

the character.

He didn’t tell his father about the audi-

tion until after he got the part. Denzel has

alwaysbeenmoreofasternmotivatorthana

teacher anyway. His father’s advice is always

thesame:“Keepworking.Youain’tgood

enough.” Denzel also shut down John David’s

early reluctance to follow him into acting by

saying “Google ‘Michael Douglas’ and then

come back and talk to me about my shadow.”

“If I try to act like him or make movie

choices like him I’m going to fail” John

David says. “I love him. He’s one of my

favorite actors of all time but I can’t do that.

Nobody can do that.”

IT’S WASHINGTON’S FIRST VISITto pub-

licist Alan Nierob’s Los Angeles off ice. The

actor still dresses like an athlete with cargo

pants torn off above the knee over compres-

sion shorts a plain black T-shirt knit Adidas

and a Yankees cap worn backward.

He takes a look around and spots a

photoof Nierobstandingnexttohisfather

RichardGereandMelGibson.“Itookthat

photo!” Washington exclaims. One perk

of being Denzel’s son that John David did

accept was using his father’s publicist (as well

as his agent). John David has known Nierob

since he was in junior high.

Now that people want his picture Wash-

ington has assigned Nierob to be more of

an anti-publicist — to turn down nearly all

interview requests. He doesn’t want publicity

for being his father’s son. He wants to earn it.

“I’mtryingtobuildmyrésumé”Wash-

ington says. “The lede more times than not is

going to be about my father because I haven’t

accomplished anything yet. I don’t need the

attention just because of who I’m related to.”

That hasn’t stopped him from being

noticed. Dwayne Johnson garnered all the

headlines surrounding the release ofBallers

but by the time the season came to an end

Washington was getting plenty of attention.

Then social media blew up as people real-

ized he was Denzel’s son. There was another

round of revelations in January when Wash-

ington stood onstage with his mother and

siblings as his father received the Cecil B.

DeMille Award at the Golden Globes.

The beard offers him a protective layer in

more ways than one. Growing it out helps

him become Ricky Jerret a character in total

contrast to Washington’s quiet and humble

demeanor. As soon as f ilming on a season

completes his f irst stop is the barber. Trim-

ming down the follicles to a close crop makes

him barely recognizable as the guy onscreen.

Wa sh i ng ton do e sn’t have a g i rl f r iend or

a home. Right now it’s all about the work.

When shootingBallers the show puts him up

in a Miami apartment. Afterward he goes into

a modif ied off-season training mode f lying

to NewYorkto studyacting atHBStudio and

spendingsummersinL.A.totrainwithNFL

playersatProactiveSportsPerformance.It’s

a routine he still loves from his playing days

which he uses now to stay f it for his new role.

And after landing the Jerret part with his

f irst audition Washington has faced the hard

realities of being an actor in Hollywood. The

only other job he’s scored in two years of audi-

tions is as a Brooklyn rapper in a RZA-directed

movie that’s in post-production limbo. This

sounds frustrating but it makes him smile. All

he’s ever wanted is to be treated normally.

“I’m auditioning like crazy and I’m get-

ting turned down like everybody else so I

feel great” Washington says. “I feel off icially

ingratiated with the world.”Q

NOTEBOOK TV

FROM TOP: John David with his

parents at the premiere ofBook of Eli;

playing opposite Dwayne “The Rock”

Johnson left Washington has become

Baller’s breakout star.

MEN’S JOURNAL 46 SEPTEMBER 2016

FROM TOP: GREGG DEGUIRE/FILMMAGIC/GETTY IMAGES; COURTESY OF HBO