Denzel Washington let slip in a press conference following the film’s world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) that he hasn’t seen the John Sturges’ original starring Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach and Steve McQueen.
Considering The Magnificent Seven is considered a cinematic classic, you’d have put money on the star of its remake having seen it.
Washington, who – despite a name-change – plays Brynner’s role, said: “I didn’t keep away from it, I just didn’t know how it would help me.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: “The hardest thing was who would play [the role played by] Steve McQueen [in the original] because he was like the coolest guy in the world.