Denzel Washington Having Difficulty Speaking After Nearly Biting Half His Tongue Off

Denzel Washington during CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 24, 2023. Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington may sound different when he takes the stage later this month to perform in a Broadway revival of “Othello,” one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays.

During a recent appearance on The New York Times’s podcast “The Daily,” the 70-year-old stage and screen veteran revealed that he had suffered a mishap late last year, which has impacted the way that he talks.

“I bit my tongue almost half-off about a few months ago, and it’s affecting my speech,” Washington explained during the Feb. 8 episode, speaking with a slight but noticeable lisp.

The actor did not elaborate on how the accident occurred but noted that it has forced him to slow down.

“I got to go forward with it. I have to use [my tongue],” he said, intimating that some of his lines in the Shakespearean tragedy are already difficult to recite.

“I have a line ... ‘Whither will you that I go to answer this your charge?’ You see what I’m saying? It’s hard,” he said with a laugh.

“My tongue is sore, and I got some temporary tooth put in because my tooth fell out of my head,” he added.

“It’s affected everything, and I’m thinking that’s a bad thing. So I don’t think it’s ever gonna heal. It’s like I got a little flap in there now.”

On Broadway

Despite his recent health setback, Washington is still scheduled to perform in the Broadway production of “Othello,” directed by Tony Award-winning producer Kenny Leon.

The play opens on Feb. 24 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City for a 15-week run.

The “Fences” star will take on the titular role opposite actor Jake Gyllenhaal, who will portray the play’s antagonist, Iago.

“Spurned for promotion, Iago’s relentless quest for vengeance against Othello and his wife, Desdemona (portrayed by Molly Osborne), plunges them into a shocking web of deception and betrayal,” an official synopsis reads.

Washington’s upcoming performance will prove to be a full-circle moment for the two-time Oscar winner.

The actor first played Othello in his 20s while studying theater at Fordham University in New York, according to the theater group Shakespeare & Company.

“Fifty years of experience—hopefully, I’ve learned something,” the actor said while discussing his part during a November 2024 appearance on “Good Morning America.”

“It’s like coming back home. It’s like one long journey—50-year journey—and I’m looking forward to it.”

Pauletta Washington and Denzel Washington attend the 94th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood and Highland in Hollywood, Calif., on March 27, 2022. Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

Washington married his wife, Pauletta, in 1983. The couple have four children: John, 40, Katia, 37, and twins Malcolm, 33, and Olivia, 33.

Five years after he married, he made his Broadway debut in the play “Checkmates,” written by the late playwright Ron Milner.

He later performed in productions of “Julius Caesar” (2005), “Fences” (2010), “A Raisin in the Sun” (2014), and “The Iceman Cometh” (2018), per Playbill.

“I love the theater,” Washington said on “The Daily.”

“I started in the theater. I learned to act on stage,” he continued. “As an actor, I think that still gives me the greatest joy is acting on stage as opposed to acting in movies.”

Washington made his debut on television in 1982, playing Dr. Philip Chandler on the medical drama television series “St. Elsewhere.”

His film credits include “The Pelican Brief” (1993), “The Bone Collector” (1999), “Remember the Titans” (2000), “Training Day” (2001), “Man on Fire” (2004), “The Book of Eli” (2010), and “Flight” (2012), among others.

Washington is also known for his role in “The Equalizer” film franchise as well as his work as a director, having directed “Antwone Fisher” (2002), “The Great Debaters” (2007), “Fences” (2016), and “A Journal for Jordan” (2021).

In 2021, Washington starred in the historical thriller “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” a film adaptation of Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth,” written and directed by filmmaker Joel Coen.

More recently, he played Macrinus in “Gladiator II,” which premiered in theaters in November 2024.

The film was the highest-grossing movie of the actor’s career, earning more than $460 million worldwide, The Numbers reported.