Reprising (and directing) on the big screen the role he played in the 2010 Broadway production of August Wilson’s celebrated play, Denzel Washington has a straightforward definition for the talkative, conflicted and baseball-obsessed Troy and the drama that unfolds around him: “It’s a story about a family that could take place at any time, about this husband’s frustration and what he chooses to do about it, the poor decisions that he makes”, he told us. “The family part of it, which is the basis of it, is universal. It could be now, it could be 100 years from now.” Although Wilson’s play – part of his 10-piece Pittsburgh Cycle – takes place within the frame of the 1950s and racial discrimination, Washington says that was not his approach in the movie: “It’s not a story about a social landscape. The universal stems from the specific.” This is Denzel Washington’s eighth nomination; he won a Golden Globe in the Supporting category in 1990, forGlory, and again in 1993 in the Actor/Drama section for Malcolm X. He is the recipient of our 2016 Cecil B. deMille Award.