‘Even in the darkest stories, I’m looking for light’: The Christian faith of Denzel Washington

Hollywood actor, Denzel Washington, recently got baptised in New York. Tim Bechervaise takes a look at the role that faith has played in the life of the Gladiator II star

For years, whenever asked for my favourite film, I said The Book of Eli, a story about a man fighting his way across a ravaged, post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book – the Bible.

I didn’t know it when I first watched the film, but it turns out the Bible means much to the man who played Eli: Denzel Washington. Indeed, the actor – who’s starring in the eagerly-anticipated Gladiator II, which hit cinemas this month – would say the Bible means more to him now than it did when the film was released more than a decade ago.