Denzel Washington tortured me: Antoine Fuqua

Director Antoine Fuqua says getting Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington onboard for "The Magnificent Seven" was not easy.

The director added that Denzel tortured him on purpose.

When asked about how easy was it to convince Denzel to do the film, Fuqua said: "It wasn't that easy. He tortured me for a while."

"The Magnificent Seven" is a remake of the 1960 classic, which is itself a remake of the legendary 1954 Japanese film "The Seven Samurai". The film will release in India on Friday. The press event was organised by Sony Pictures Entertainment here.

The film also stars Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and Vincent D'Onofrio.

The cast is very diverse, and Fuqua feels that "it's one of these things where you don't get to make these kinds of movies anymore".

"We sort of have abandoned some of those classic films like that. Denzel, like I said, he just tortured me on purpose. He kind of dragged me out and then he finally made me fly to New York and have lunch and paint the whole picture -- which is kind of what he does to me sometimes. But he said yes," Fuqua said.

He added that Hawke threatened him to cast him in the film.

Fuqua said: "When I did 'The Equalizer' I was in New York and he heard that I may do ' The Magnificent Seven'. He literally grabbed me and put me against the wall and said 'If you do this effen movie without me I'll kill you'. So I was like, 'Don't worry, you're in'. So he was there.

"Vincent D'Onofrio we're friends. We called Vincent and said, 'If I do this movie are you in?' He said, 'I'm in'. Chris was, you know, he had so many offers and I wasn't sure if I was going to get Chris or not. But ironically, when I got Chris on the phone -- I was in my office, they said, 'Okay, Chris is on the phone, wants to talk to you about 'Magnificent Seven'. As soon as I picked up the phone he started singing 'Oh Shenandoah' this old Western song. He just starts singing. And I knew he was in."

South Korean Byung-hun Lee "was the final actor".

--IANS

sug/rb/vm