I'm not meaning to litigate Denzel as a culture-only star. White folk know Denzel is like that, I'm just noting that the movies where he gets to have range and be a complex character are usually not frequented by the fairer-complected as much as them throwing awards at him for playing a rogue.he was in st elsewhere just before though, so im sure white people of the time remember
I think of Denzel I think of Glory. Devil in a Blue Dress. Malcolm - hell, all his stuff with Spike. That's Denzel to me.
But most folk will bust out Training Day references or comedian impressions of him. Was mostly just a musing on the different sides of the same person's career. Ricochet a microcosm of that - movies he stars in get seen as 'black movies' but the movies he co-stars in usually get further reach. And in those movies, seems like they love making him an antagonistic figure. Either to the protagonist, or to the established order.