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On a hot summer’s day in Boston, a group of reporters made the journey to a warehouse where they witnessed Denzel Washington escape from being tied up in a control room.

Sounds like a serious situation, but it’s all part of his new movie The Equalizer. Denzel plays a former black ops commando named Robert McCall, who faked his death for a quiet life in Boston. He’s forced out of retirement to rescue a young girl, played by Chloe Grace Moretz, but finds himself face-to-face with Russian gangsters along the way. And that’s when the movie gets good.

A remake of a cult TV series by the same name, the movie version of The Equalizer looks to be epic:

GlobalGrind’s own Caitlyn Hitt was one of those lucky reporters who got to check out the Oscar-winning actor during filming, and she also got the 411 on some cool facts straight from Denzel himself. Check out some excerpts below.

On bringing Robert McCall’s backstory to the film:

“I think he’s looking to put his past behind him. I think I actually say, ‘I’ve done a lot of bad things. Things I’m not really proud of.’ You know, part of my backstory is that I promised my wife that I wouldn’t go back to being that person, but we wouldn’t have a movie then. So, he’s drawn back in.”

On the connection he has with Chloe’s character in the film:

“They have a story to tell. I think my character and Chloe’s sort of connect. He doesn’t come out of the gate, just fighting. He’s trying to lead a normal life, but it’s not normal. He’s not able to sleep. He’s got issues. He’s a night person, obviously because of his work, and Chloe’s a night person.

She’s really innocent and she’s being abused and mislead. He just helps her to believe in herself and her abilities. She wants to sing, but she’s working the streets. She doesn’t really believe that she’s good enough, but she touches him and gets him to open up, so they’re good for each other.”

On reconnecting with Antoine Fuqua:

“I think it’s good. That was one of the reasons I was excited about him coming on board. We had good success together before, so it makes it easier.”

On working with Chloe vs. working with Dakota Fanning:

“She’s a pro. It’s like when I worked with Dakota Fanning – they’re pros. Chloe’s been in the business for what, eight years? She knows what she’s doing.”

We also caught up with producer Todd Black, who told us this film was originally made with another actor in mind:

“We originally were talking about Russell Crowe and as we were developing the story, even before we wrote the script, it just kind of felt like, ‘I don’t really know that Russell Crowe is exactly right for it’ in the way that we kept talking about it. He’s a great guy and he’s a great actor, and I think that he probably could have done a really great job at it, but the way we kept talking about it in our offices as we were developing it, it didn’t feel like Russell.

I literally had a lunch scheduled with Denzel the next day and I said to the writer and my partner, ‘It really is Denzel. It’s more Denzel than anybody.’ And it was one of those light bulb moments. So I sat with him at lunch and I said, ‘I think maybe I have a franchise for you that’s not written yet, but if you’re interested, I’d like to have the writer write it for you’ and he said, ‘What is it?’ and I said, “Have you ever heard of the Equalizer?’ and he goes, ‘That’s a great idea, make the script great and I’ll come in.’ So we literally for eight months worked on a script with the writer and just tailor-made it for him and then once that happened and we gave it to him on June 30th, he called me on July 3rd and he said, ‘I’m Robert McCall, how are you?’ He was in.”

The rest is history. The Equalizer is set to hit theaters in September.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sony