At the recent press conference for The Great Debaters, Denzel talked to the press about stepping back into the director's chair, offering roles to new talent, being a role model, and the state of debating in today's tech-savvy culture.

Denzel Washington on the best aspect of directing:

"There's no one thing -- I can't say the best thing about it. The best thing about it is getting the opportunity to do it. That's the best thing about it. In this case, just seeing these three young people do what they've studied hard and worked hard to do, I know as an actor how difficult it is to get in this position, to get the opportunity to get good parts. You know, many times, people talk about Academy Awards and this and that and I always... you know, it's not so much - you can't be considered unless you have a good role. And good roles are hard to come by. So they all three of them have great roles and great opportunities."

Washington on the process of getting the film off the ground:

"It was a four-year process. The script came across my desk, I think it was January. It will be four years next month. So I worked on the screenplay for a long time between jobs, or when I would come back home I'd sit with the writers. I worked with Bob Eisele. When I came on the project, Bob wrote the original screenplay. Susan Lorie Parks was working on the screenplay. I worked with her and I worked with Horton Foote for a while, and then I worked with Tom Everson, and then I ended up going back to Bob Eisele. So it was a process.

"I might be home for 4 months, 5 months, we'd get intense work done, and he'd go off or she'd go off writing. They'd send me stuff. I got home again, I'd look at it, and then I guess I finished American Gangster November of last year. The day I finished that, the next day... a long plane ride home from Thailand . By the time I landed American Gangster was in my rear-view mirror. So I had a lot of time to work on it and then that intensified in the last 4 or 5 months... I had enough time, I didn't feel rushed, but at a certain time you going to get on with it and let the actors start to speak, put everybody in a room. We'd sit in my office and we'd talk through a scene, its weaknesses, and how do you feel about that line... and as they've heard me say - I sort of play all the parts anyway. In working on the screenplay, I would stand up and read it and just shape it and mold it... basically, the process didn't finish until Tuesday when they finally took the picture from me. I don't know when you all saw the film, there have been different versions of it. And the actual film wasn't finished until Tuesday night. Wednesday was the first screening of the film - the screenings before Wednesday was a digital copy. So if you didn't see it before Wednesday, you didn't see the finished movie."

On the process and philosophy of offering roles for the film to new talent:

"No, no philosophy. I mean... if the movie had been about three 70-year-olds, I don't think it would have been new actors. They might have been. But these were the roles and these were the actors that won the roles. I mean, I didn't decide to do this film because I saw a great opportunity, or solely because I saw a great opportunity for young actors. I read a piece of material that interested me and that I was moved by, and these were the young people that won the parts."

On whether he likes to debate:

"Me personally? I don't need to debate. You know, talk is cheap. That's my philosophy. I'm about doing, so I don't need to talk about it. I'd rather do it."

Washington on being a role model and the role models he looked up to:

"I don’t even look at myself as a role model. It’s an opportunity, in this case, with these young people, to share what I’ve experienced with them; thirty-five [laughs] years of experience. At the same time, it was inspiring for me too to work with them, to work with Forest Whitaker who is a heavyweight in this business, and for him to make a sacrifice, which he did, to be in the film, was great for me. No, there wasn¹t any one person I thought about. I felt an obligation but a connection, if you will, with Mel Tolson or with Dr. Farmer and his father and all of these people, Henrietta Wells and all of these people that accomplished what they accomplished. Does that answer the question? Because I could go on and on."

Inside The Great Debaters with Denzel Washington Page 2