Given all the great Denzel Washington roles across his career, one wouldn’t blame any fellow actor for being intimidated by his presence, especially when it comes to working alongside him. Chris Chalk, who has been lighting up the 2025 TV schedule with his It: Welcome To Derry character lately, shared being totally unbothered when auditioning alongside him for a stage role.
Welcome To Derry's Chris Chalk Didn't Let Audition With Denzel Washington Daunt Him
Chris Chalk famously shared the stage with Denzel Washington back in 2010 as Cory, the teenage son to Washington’s character of Troy (his wife Rose was played by Viola Davis). When speaking to The Hollywood Reporter he told the story behind it, saying this:
You give yourself a moment. I remember auditioning with Denzel for the eventual callback, and that one had a whole rigmarole. It took them months. They hated everybody who auditioned for Cory. Then they brought in the 'best of the worst,' which was how I think they said it, and that’s not a great setup.
The show that played for three months on Broadway would go on to win “Best Revival of a Play” at the Tonys along with Washington and David winning for their roles. Apparently, the audition process wasn’t an easy one for casting Chalk’s supporting role. Here’s what happened next:
They kept moving the audition. I kept saying, 'Look, I have a class that I’m teaching on Saturdays, so I won’t do the audition if it’s on Saturday.' It was not an ego thing. Just as Denzel has had to forge his course ahead for Denzel, I had to forge mine. I can’t be like, 'Ooh, there’s a shiny thing.' My manager thought I was crazy when I said that I wouldn’t do the audition on Saturday, but then I said, 'It’s your job to manage my career, not Denzel’s career.'
Chalk wouldn’t let the fact that he’d be auditioning with Washington keep him from his day job, and let’s be honest not a lot of actors would do this. Of course, we know he ended up getting the gig, so holding his ground didn’t end up changing anything about the process.
Why The Actor Thinks His Approach Actually Helped His Audition
Once the actual audition happened with Washington, Chris Chalk talked about how it went and why his decision to not be fazed by the actor’s star power may have actually helped him. In his words:
During the audition, Denzel wasn’t paying that much attention to me. So I kicked him, and he kicked me. Then I pushed him, and man, he’s strong. That dude pushed me so hard that we were barely doing the scene at a certain point. But I think it’s important even for him to be in a room of people who are not fanboying over him. People like Denzel respect themselves enough to be like, 'We’re all peers doing this.’
Regarding all the kicking and pushing, Chalk is referring to a fight scene Troy and Cory have in the play. While some actors might take issue with such a physical scene with someone who’s been called the greatest actor by Spike Lee, Chalk’s ability to see the Oscar winner as his “peer” must have made all the difference.
This is such a great story about an actor who really didn’t let an actor’s caliber in the industry get in the way of his career, and we love to see it. We’ve been recommending the show to everyone, and people have been loving it. You can currently stream the series up to episode 5, and look forward to the rest on Sundays until December 14.
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