Denzel Washington revealed to Esquire magazine as part of a new cover story that he got bitter after losing the best actor Oscar to Kevin Spacey in 2000. The Gladiator II actor, who had already won one Oscar and scored three other nominations before that year’s ceremony,

But while the sting stayed with him for a decade and a half, it was just two years after the 2000 loss that Washington finally won the Academy Award for Best Actor, for the cop drama Training Day. The victory made him the second Black actor to win in the category, after Sidney Poitier's 1963 win for Lilies of the Field.