Denzel Washington Rewrote This Sci-Fi Flop Over Fears Of Racist Reactions

We here at /Film have written about Brett Leonard’s mind-bending 1995 cyber-thriller “Virtuosity” before. While the film was critically panned when it was first released in theaters, it still stands as a corker of a sci-fi flick and boasts excellent performances from Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. While it may be a silly actioner, there’s a palpable streak of tech paranoia running through the movie, predicting our very modern fears of AI

“Virtuosity” takes place in a near future where convicts are being used to test out a new virtual reality training simulator for cops. In order to keep the police officers sharp, the computer programmers have been extrapolating the criminal profiles of hundreds of dangerous real-world criminals and serial killers into a single artificially intelligent virtual supervillain named SID 6.7 (Crowe). Former cop turned convict Parker Barnes (Washington) is the only trainee who has come close to capturing Sid in simulations.

In what may be an unwise move, SID’s mainframe is located in the vicinity of an instantaneous android builder. So, SID conspires with the programmer in charge of his development (Stephen Spinella) to shunt his computer consciousness into an android body and allow him to wreak havoc in the real world. In response, Barnes is sprung from prison to apprehend the now-active SID.

In order to psychologically profile SID, Barnes teams up with a shrink, Dr. Carter (Kelly Lynch), to unlock what makes SID tick. In early drafts of the film’s script, Barnes and Dr. Carter were meant to have their own romantic subplot. Speaking to the AV Club in 2012, however, Lynch revealed that Washington himself re-wrote the script to remove the love story, as he was concerned that racist audiences in 1995 wouldn’t accept a love story between a Black man and a white woman.

Kelly Lynch pointed out that Denzel Washington wrested control of “Virtuosity” from director Brett Leonard, perhaps not feeling that Leonard was experienced enough. Never mind that Leonard had already helmed a low-budget horror movie called “The Dead Pit,” the notorious cyber-thriller “The Lawnmower Man,” and the supernatural stalker movie “Hideaway.” Washington, Lynch said, actually made the script more salaciously action-packed and — much to her chagrin — reduced her role, giving himself a lot of her character’s dialogue:

“[H]e took the script and rewrote it and decided that my character wasn’t really so much of an expert but worked at a company and had a child, who would have a bomb strapped to her back. So, I would be some sort of a hostage, a child-in-jeopardy thing – which I absolutely hate – and there would not be a romantic relationship between these people. Even though this man had been in prison for many, many years, he didn’t feel any connection to women when he got out […] or at least not any woman that we see him with. And then he took half of my part and incorporated it into his dialogue.”

Lynch added that the rewrites and the dramatic reduction of her dialogue, along with the removal of the romance, were “the beginning of the end” for “Virtuosity.” (It should be noted that the movie was a flop at the box office, at least in terms of its theatrical gross.) When Lynch confronted Washington about her role and the romance he excised, Washington was frank about his reasoning, saying that his decision was 100% racially motivated.

Kelly Lynch pointed out that the romance in “Virtuosity” was actually skillfully written (the screenplay is credited to Eric Bernt), but that Denzel Washington didn’t care. He was a little too aware that a racist white audience would see him with a white woman and be moved to anger. Lynch recalled the conversation as follows:

“I said, ‘Denzel, what is it? Why don’t you believe that the man you’re playing couldn’t be attracted to me?’ I mean, it wasn’t a cheesy love story. It was actually really well-written and moving. And he said, ‘You know what, Kelly? I hate to say it, but, you know, white men bring women to movies, and they d’n’t want to watch a Black man with their woman.’ I was like, ‘What? No. Really?’ He said, ‘No, I’m sorry, but that’s truly what it is. That’s what the audience is.’ I’m like, ‘But how about ‘The Bodyguard?’ That was a huge hit movie.’ ‘Well, that’s different. That’s a white man. It’s different.’ I said, ‘So, that’s your main motivating factor on this?’ He said, ‘Yes.'”

“The Bodyguard,” recall, was the 1992 romance film starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner. It was immensely popular in theaters. As for Lynch, she was miffed by Washington’s decision. “I get that Denzel got a little bit afraid of everything,” she admitted, “and I’m sure he believed what he was saying, although I think he’s wrong.” She added that Washington’s comment amounted to “a weird experience.” At least Lynch can take some comfort in the fact that “Virtuosity” is something of a cult classic now.

Also, fun trivia: Kaley Cuoco played Lynch’s daughter in the movie.