Spike Lee won't disrupt Denzel Washington's retirement plans: 'He's his own man'

The Oscar-winning filmmaker and head of the 2024 Red Sea film festival jury speaks to The National

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Spike Lee returned to Jeddah for the Red Sea International Film Festival 2024.

While Brooklyn will always be his home, American director Spike Lee was in his element during his Jeddah return over the last week, 32 years after he famously filmed part of Malcolm X in the holy city of Makkah. This year, he presided over the jury of the Red Sea International Film Festival, with his trademark activist spirit on full display.

Awarding Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel's To a Land Unknown the Silver Yusr Best Feature Film award on Thursday, Lee joyously called Fleifel up with the words, "Palestine, come back on the stage!"

In his acceptance speech, Fleifel then cited Lee as a key inspiration, to which Lee responded: "You inspire me. I feel inspired."

Speaking to The National, Lee has made it clear that even at 67, his words on stage were no mere hyperbole – he is currently more driven to create than ever before, even after two dozen films and an Academy Award.

"I still have a lot to prove to myself," says Lee. "I have to continue the level of filmmaking. I want to be like Kurosawa. I want to be in my 80s and still making great cinema. So that's the challenge for me."

This is not a view shared by all of his contemporaries. Director Quentin Tarantino plans to retire after 10 films, believing that directors rarely stay at the peak of their powers late in their careers. When asked his opinion on this, Lee adds, "I have no comment," with a bellowing laugh.

Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel cited Lee as a key inspiration for his career during his acceptance speech on Thursday. Getty

The Japanese director Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai, Rashomon) died in 1998 at 88, and continued to produce well-regarded work until the age of 81. The filmmaker has been a particular focal point throughout Lee's career, serving as the inspiration for his first film She's Gotta Have It as well as his next, Highest 2 Lowest, set to be released next summer.

"I've had a connection with Kurosawa from the very beginning, since I was in film school. One of the dearest things I have is a portrait photograph that Kurosawa signed for me with a paint brush in white ink," says Lee.

Highest 2 Lowest is a reinterpretation (he rejects the word "remake") of Kurosawa's 1963 crime film High and Low, and will star Denzel Washington.

"This is the fifth time I'm working with Denzel Washington. In order, that's Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X – in which I think Denzel gave one of the greatest performances ever in a biopic – He Got Game, and now Highest 2 Lowest.

"It's a blessing for me to work with Denzel sometimes. And it's not just me, and Denzel – our families are close. That Washington-Lee love is special."

Washington, 69, has stated recently that he plans to retire after his next several movies, which Lee does not protest.

Lee famously shot part of his 1992 film 'Malcolm X' in Mecca, which began his 32-year relationship with Saudi Arabia. Getty

"Denzel is his own man. I'll leave it at that. He's going to do what he wants to do," says Lee. "That's OK, Denzel. We don't need another take. We got it. We got it."

Lee does respond positively to the idea of teaming Washington with his son, John David Washington, who starred in Lee's Academy Award-winning film BlacKkKlansman.

"That's family. We'll see what happens, but that would be great, for sure," says Lee.

Washington will be taking the lead role played by Toshiro Mifune in Kurosawa's film, with one key difference, adds Lee: "Mifune played a shoemaker. In this one, Denzel is going to play a music mogul with his own label."

Rapper and actor A$AP Rocky was recently announced to be joining the cast, who Lee confirms will be playing a kidnapper in the film. Lee also teases that there will be more music stars cast in the project, saying: "We're in the world of music in this film."