Lots of unusual activities commenced in 2020. It was a huge story when exes Bruce Willis and Demi Moore quarantined together with their family earlier this year, but they weren’t the only famous family to get back together during these strange times. In fact, Tenet’s John David Washington recently revealed to Samuel L. Jackson that he moved home with his own famous father, Denzel Washington, after the pandemic shut productions down.
Samuel L. Jackson was one of the celebrities who took over for Jimmy Kimmel during his summer off of the airwaves. Having different people on as late night hosts can sometimes be fun and even advantageous for the conversation, as happened when Jackson – a longtime friend of the Washingtons -- started asking John David Washington what living at home during this strange and unusual year had been like:
Samuel L. Jackson: I know Denzel likes some order in the house.John David Washington: I can't believe we're doing this right now [laughs]. Yes, there was a chore or two. My chore was to make sure I'm down for dinner in time.Jackson: That’s not a chore. A chore is like, you know, sweeping the driveway, taking the garbage out, something legit that earns your keepWashington: How about cooking? There you go, I earned my keep that way.
Though he was back in his own digs by the time Tenet was released into theaters late this summer, family friend Samuel L. Jackson isn’t going to let John David Washington forget that he lived at home with his parents in his thirties. (Washington is 36.) But while he’s at home with dad Denzel and mom Pauletta Pearson, there were still chores to be done.
This is just good TV. We get Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington shooting the breeze a little. There’s some amusing banter and ultimately it’s a great celebrity bit because we get all of this cool talk about Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and John David Washington being the star of that movie. And yet, at home he’s still doing chores for his dad. It’s adorable, it’s a “celebrities are just like us” moment, and it’s certainly worth a watch.
Meanwhile, Samuel L. Jackson has a long history with Denzel Washington. The two appeared in Mo Better Blues together in 1990 and have known each other professionally throughout their careers, also hanging out as pals early on when they both lived in NYC. Or as Jackson put it on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he’s known John David Washington since “before he could even shave.” It’s totally like an embarrassing uncle moment, except in this case Washington's getting it from an a-list actor whom people revere.
Sometimes, I think it would be pretty cool to have a famous parent, but then moments like this happen and I do see the drawbacks to famous people knowing you before you hit puberty, much less adulthood. John David Washington has been clear about forging his own path, though he'll take helpful nuggets of wisdom from his dad from time to time. Besides, in some ways, you can’t -- and probably wouldn't even want to -- shake your roots.
