Denzel Washington: 'Boxing helped me perfect gunslinger's quick draw'

Denzel Washington found his boxing training helpful when working on his quick draw for his new Western.

The Academy Award-winning actor stars as bounty hunter Sam Chisholm in The Magnificent Seven, with his character leading a posse of seven men in an attempt to protect a village from a mercenary landgrabber.

The part was originally played by Yul Brynner in the 1960 Hollywood interpretation of the movie, which was based on Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's classic, Seven Samurai.

Accordingly, the role required the Training Day actor to perfect his horsemanship and gun-handling skills. And when asked about gunslinger Chisholm's quick draw, the 61-year-old revealed in an interview that his boxing experience had proved useful.

"I have a quick twitch, I'm fast anyway, I have fast hands and fast feet and boxing keeps you young," he explained to the Press Association. "You twitch muscles and develop that style. I will be boxing in the morning, I've been boxing for more than 30 years."

The actor also had to show off his horse-handling skills, something which he soon came to regard as a newfound pleasure.

"I really got close with my horse, I get that relationship. Some days you just got on your horse and took it down to the lake, you drop the reins and he stays right there," he smiled. "It was life's simple pleasures, sit down and put a blade of grass in your mouth and remember how it used to be."

Denzel leads a diverse cast in the Antoine Fuqua-directed movie, which also stars Vincent D'Onofrio, Martin Sensmeier, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ethan Hawke, Chris Pratt and Byung-hun Lee.

And the Malcolm X actor adds that he truly believes the film reflects the realities of the old West.

"That's the way the world has looked and the way it has always looked on the American frontier, the Wild West was a melting pot, it didn't matter what color your skin was but how fast you were with your guns," he shared.

09/20/2016 18:50

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