Everyone has mispronounced Denzel Washington’s name – thanks to his mom.
The actor spoke to Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday about the correct pronunciation of Monica when he discussed all NFL players under the same name.
“This is how you know they named it after me,” said the Golden Globe winner, 70, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” exterior. “My name is not pronounced Denzel.”
Instead of “Denzel,” Washington correctly said his name and clipped the second syllable to sound like “Denzel.”
He said, “My father, Denzel Hayes Washington, Sr. I’m Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. My mother (Renis Washington) would say “Denzel.”
“So she said, ‘From now on, you’re Denzel,'” Denzel recalled using his known pronunciation. “That’s how we got Denzel.”
Kimmel, 57, replied, “That’s clever.”
Now there is “four players named Denzel of the NFL” who said that the number of talk show hosts increased after Washington won the first Oscar in 1990.
“It was zero in 1987,” Kimmel pointed out.
Denzel agreed, “I know. There are a lot of Denzels.”
The “Best 2” star previously shared her mother’s strategy while competing in the 2013 “Graham Norton Show.”
He trolled Graham Norton at the time and asked him the 62-year-old was the right way to say Denzel, so he repeated his moniker both ways.
Recently, Kirsten Dunst made a similar headline about “everyone” who mispronounces her name.
“I don’t care,” the 43-year-old actress said in an interview with the town and the country last month.
“You’re just giving up,” she said.
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