Denzel Washington is the newest face on the cover of GQ Magazine and he admitted that he believed Whitney Houston’s death should serve as a lesson.
“It’s more of an example to me or the rest of us to keep it together. I was listening to her song ‘I Look to You.’ It’s prophetic,” Washington said in the interview.
Still, Washington doesn’t condemn Houston, his close friend and former co-star, and it seems like he thinks she just made a terrible mistake.
“Maybe she thought she could have one. And then the next thing you know, her body was betraying her. She didn’t know that her body was aging quickly,” he continued. “She couldn’t take it. Your body can only take so much.”
The Oscar winner also commented on a period of sobriety in Houston’s life. According to him, she had been thriving in recovery at one point.
“Whitney was my girl, and she had done so well in recovery. And that is the toughest part about addiction. And that was a monster drug that got a hold of her, it was a mean one. You can’t go back to that one. Nobody beats that,” he said.
He compared Houston’s situation to another famous drug user and friend, except this person overcame their drug addiction.
“I look at people—and I don’t think I’m speaking out of line—Samuel L. Jackson, I’ve known for thirty-some-odd years, he was down at the bottom. And he came all the way back. And when he cleaned up, he never looked back. But he can’t have that beer, because it might lead to the tough thing.”
In addition to Houston, Washington also talked about the impending elections. According to Washington, Mitt Romney seems to be unnerved and he wondered why he doesn’t bring up his Mormon faith more often. “He hasn’t even brought it up. When I see him, he’s always uncomfortable,” said Washington. “You can see that uncomfortableness. Forget about his being Mormon. He hasn’t said anything about his faith.”
His words for President Obama were nicer.
“He’s in the beginning of the third quarter. I don’t know what his legacy is yet,” the actor said of the President. “[Obama is] the first—that’s a part of it. Like Jackie Robinson. But it just wasn’t the first game; it was lasting the whole thing.”
