Denzel Washington Gets Real

Washington immediately responded to the script. "It's really wonderful writing. When I read this script, the pages got wet. I mean, I have four children. Could you imagine having to tell your son or daughter everything that you want to teach them in life, over the course of their life, in one minute, while they're halfway gone? It's just good writing."

Washington prepared for the role by spending time alone with his onscreen family. "One of things we did right off the bat was I took Kim and Daniel on a trip to Niagara Falls," he relates. "Got a pickup truck, and the three of us drove to Niagara Falls. It's like a two- or three-hour drive from Toronto [where the movie was being shot] down there -- and we really got a chance to bond together. Went to lunch and took the boat ride under the Falls. Tried to be a normal family. People were running around taking pictures and stuff. But we did the best we could."

"Daniel, he became like my fifth child anyway," adds the actor fondly. "I really love that little boy, and it was easy to feel for him. And he was such a professional, too. He did a wonderful job. And Kimberly is such an emotionally available actress, and a wonderful actress, that half the time I was really doing what you see in the scene, which was keeping her together."