Denzel Washington has never made one particular type of movie despite a long and varied career. The actor had his breakout role in the 1980s medical drama St. Elsewhere before moving on to major feature films. He won his first Oscar in 1990 for his Glory supporting role, which he followed with a 2002 win for his lead Training Day performance. Overall, he has been nominated for 10 Oscars, including nine as an actor (Cry Freedom, Glory, Malcolm X, The Hurricane, Training Day, Flight, Fences, Roman J. Israel, Esq., and The Tragedy of Macbeth) and one as a producer (Fences).
After the end of St. Elsewhere in 1988, the star took on a few other television projects, though he hasn’t held a role on the small screen since providing voices for Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child in 1997. On the big screen, however, he has appeared in more than four dozen titles, with further releases on the way. Some major Denzel Washington movies outside of the ones for which he was Oscar-nominated include the 2021 thriller The Little Things and the 1993 John Grisham adaptation The Pelican Brief.
Despite a wide-ranging career, Denzel Washington has never starred in an animated movie. This is unusual, considering how many different genres and storytelling styles he has tackled on the big screen. In addition to his many dramas, these include comedy (Heart Condition), horror (Fallen), Western (The Magnificent Seven), and Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing). He has even dabbled in being the star of a major action franchise with the Equalizer movies.
The only times that the star has ever dabbled in animation came during the period when he was working in television in the 1990s. In addition to voicing the Crooked Man and Humpty Dumpty in Happily Ever After, his single other animated project came when he played those same characters in the related 1997 presentation Mother Goose: A Rappin’ and Rhymin’ Special. His animation absence has been the case in spite of the fact that modern animated movies tend to boast star-studded casts that have even featured Oscar winners including Ariana DeBose in Wish and Jamie Foxx in Soul.
In addition to a role in the Gladiator 2 cast, Denzel Washington has several upcoming titles including the Spike Lee remake of the Japanese classic High and Low as well as the August Wilson adaptation The Piano Lesson, which he is producing. However, just like the rest of his movies, they are all live-action, including the project that he is producing. The star has never made a statement about any aversion to animated movies, but if his career continues on the same track moving forward, it seems unlikely that he will ever appear in one.