Denzel Washington Underwent Real Waterboarding for ‘Safe House’

February 9, 2012

New “Bourne Legacy” trailer! Jeremy Renner frenetically picks up where Matt Damon left off, based on events described in the novels by Robert Ludlum and Eric Van Lustbader. Not as exciting as the new “Spider-Man” perhaps, but it’s nice to see some hard-hitting action that isn’t all just CGI lizard tails and video game special effects!

Neuromancer author William Gibson gave a very thought-provoking radio interview this week about what happens to futurists as they age. Hint: They pine for “the good old days,” whether or not those actually existed.

Total “I can’t believe someone actually made this” art film project of the week: a twenty-four-hour film called “The Clock” that is a composite of clips from film and TV that are arranged chronologically based on what time it is for the characters. A reporter for The Globe and Mail recently screened all twenty-four hours of it, and gives the blow-by-blow:

“Workers are lining up to patch factory clocks, though it’s not yet 7:30 AM. The Daily News truck deposits a bundle of papers at a street corner. This could be a day-in-the-life documentary, except for the celebrities. They keep waking up everywhere – Harrison Ford, William Hurt, and John Cusack. Michelle Pfeiffer wakes her daughter. They’re like guests at a weekend house party. Sometimes enforced guests: There’s a morning roll call in a prison. Brutality turns to softness: Ingrid Bergman embraces a man. “

If you think twenty-four hours of that sounds like torture, maybe you should talk to Denzel Washington. The actor actually let himself be waterboarded in a scene they were filming for his new movie “Safe House.” In a controlled environment, Washington says he lasted about five seconds before tapping out: “Imagine having that done for twenty, thirty seconds? You will give up the answers! You may not necessarily tell the truth, but you will tell [your captors] whatever they want to hear.” Terrifying!

Tags: Denzel Washington, Eric Van Lustbader, Robert Ludlum, Safe House, The Bourne Legacy, The Clock, William Gibson