Virtuosity is a cheesy 1990s action movie delight, and star Denzel Washington has no issue admitting it was just a paycheck role. Washington’s action movie run began in earnest with 1991’s Ricochet, which was almost a Dirty Harry sequel. While more of a psychological thriller than a straight action flick, it confirmed Washington was a natural for the genre.

Decades later, movies like Man on Fire or the Equalizer movie trilogy proved that to be true. The star has backed away from the genre slightly in recent years, though Denzel still has two more Equalizer sequels on the horizon. He is also set to have a role in the upcoming Black Panther 3.

One of the true guilty pleasures of Denzel’s filmography is Virtuosity, where he plays a disgraced cop in the near future who is tasked with taking down Russell Crowe’s killer android. What makes Crowe’s SID 6.7 such a problem is that he’s an A.I. combo of hundreds of serial killers and is borderline unkillable.

After the likes of Malcolm X and Philadelphia, it was a surprise to see Washington fronting a cyberpunk B-movie littered with John Woo-esque action sequences. The film wasn’t much of a hit, though, and (when adjusted for inflation), earned $62 million on an estimated $78 million budget (via Box Office Mojo).

Denzel Washington Signed On For Virtuosity Purely For The Money

Denzel admitted the 1995 actioner “definitely had something to do with tuition”

Once Denzel made it big in the 1990s, he was honest that he signed up for several big movies largely for the pay involved. While he was polite enough not to name names, in a 2025 chat with The Interview, Washington outed Virtuosity as one project where the money was his main object of interest.

Especially Virtuosity, that was… I had some bills to pay. Ricochet was more like venturing down that road for the first time. The action movie road, which I didn’t really know. Virtuosity definitely had something to do with tuition! I’m sure!

In this same chat, Denzel points out that technically everything he’s ever made has been for the money, since it’s not like he’s ever refunded his fees back to the producers. For context, Washington also broke down how much of his paydays go to other people (agents, managers, etc) before reaching him.

Movies like Virtuosity helped pay the bills and gave him the chance to do smaller projects like He Got Game. While Denzel doesn’t slam Virtuosity or call it a dud, his knowing giggles about starring in it suggest it’s not one of his favorites.

Washington Still Gives A Great Performance In Virtuosity

Denzel elevates everything he’s ever appeared in

It might be a dumb action movie, and he may have taken it to fill the piggy bank, but Denzel still rocks in Virtuosity. In addition to looking great in the numerous action scenes, the real value of casting Denzel in a film like this is the natural gravitas he brings.

He’s tasked with saying some wacky dialogue, but he still infuses it with real emotion. His character, Parker Barnes, is still grieving the loss of his family in the film, and even when he’s doing his action hero stuff, Parker still clearly carries the weight of that loss.

Intriguingly, his co-star Kelly Lynch told The AV Club that Washington substantially changed the script when he came on due to a perceived lack of faith in director Brett Leonard. Despite everybody liking the initial version, Lynch stated Denzel took it upon himself to alter the story, including eliminating a romance between their characters and adding a new ending.

And when actors feel like there’s not a real captain of a ship, they can feel like, “I have to take this project under my wing, and I have to fix it, because no one is minding the store.” That’s the kind of feeling Denzel had, I think, so he 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.

Lynch also stated the movie largely unraveled due to these changes, and “… totally turned the movie into a piece of crap.” It’s revealing that Washington took such a big creative hand in Virtuosity, though it appears his changes weren’t ultimately to its benefit.

Virtuosity Is A Fun But Cheesy Terminator Ripoff

Virtuosity is a good late-night B-movie

Virtuosity is the type of high-concept, mid-budget action movie that rarely happens anymore. It’s got cool setpieces, a stacked cast, and it moves so fast it papers over most of its issues. Virtuosity also plays like a Terminator ripoff which gives Russell Crowe a chance to be a total ham.

The gimmick with Crowe’s SID is that he has to absorb glᴀss to repair damage to his body, which is constantly having pieces blown off by Parker. In contrast to Terminator, where the villains are often emotionless machines, Crowe’s Virtuosity villain is having a total blast wrecking havoc and tormenting Parker.

It’s not a good movie, but it is an entertaining one regardless. It probably earns itself another star from Denzel’s presence alone, because paycheck gig or not, he’s incapable of phoning it in.

Virtuosity Is One Of Many “Real Clunkers” Washington Made During The 1990s

Any fans of The Preacher’s Wife out there?

Virtuosity might be the only paycheck gig from the 1990s he’s willing to own up to, but according to an interview given to The Times, there were many more. Denzel admits that once he became a name, he took several projects both to look after his family and prove to studios he was a viable leading man.

After Malcolm X I made some real clunkers. Look them up — I won’t say their names…They are all in the 1990s. But I was earning. I had responsibilities.

While he doesn’t cite specific movies, Washington is likely referring to films like The Preacher’s Wife, The Bone Collector and Fallen when referring to his paycheck roles. If he truly considers entertaining genre efforts like Fallen to be “clunkers,” though, he underestimates his own talent for picking scripts with good hooks.

It should be underlined that there’s no shame in actors taking paycheck gigs either. There’s no reason they shouldn’t reap the financial benefits of their work, especially if studios consider them to have marquee value. The money provides financial security to do riskier films too, and even if Virtuosity wasn’t a hit, it’s a fun curio from Denzel’s esteemed career.

Source: Box Office Mojo, The Interview, The AV Club, The Times