Spike Lee and Denzel Washington have made four films together over 30 years ( M.O.’s Better Blues , That Way Malcolm X, He Got the Game, and Inside the Man ), cementing their legacy in the motion picture Hall of Fame. Their new film, 2 Lower Lower, marks their fifth collaboration, making it clear that they have a special artistic connection that transcends the screen.
In an interview with Mashable executive producer Mark Stetson, Spike Lee shares a story from filming Louder 2 Lower: When he was so inspired by Denzel Washington’s performance in a scene that he immediately changed the ending song. As Washington’s character, David King, a record executive, listens to a new composer perform, we see him begin to reconnect with the joy of music he’d long forgotten:
“You see in the last scene with Denzel Washington? How, he came alive, he reconnected with the muse… that was recorded live. And in the editing room, I was looking at Denzel’s face, and then I said, ‘Fucking hell, I get it!’ The reaction you’re seeing on Denzel’s face? He’s thinking about what the orchestration is going to be. So the song starts with just piano and Aiyana [-Lee Anderson] singing. And then [in the final cut] As we see the emotion on Denzel’s face, then comes the instrumentation. And that came from Denzel Washington, because he was reacting to her singing… so I called Howard [Drossin] the composer. I said, ‘We have to write orchestration for this.’ So that came in post because, when we were shooting, I had a piano. That came from the genius of Denzel Washington.”
Louder 2 Lower is now streaming on Apple TV+.
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