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"I've always understood why I've been blessed to be put in this situation. And I'm more than happy to take advantage of it and to preach, if you will, about what God has done in my life."

In a Beliefnet interview with Denzel Washington, reporter Michael Kress asks the actor a variety of questions about his personal life, his faith, and his upcoming film, "The Great Debaters." Washington shares about his childhood Church experience, his early drifting away from the Lord, his return to Christ, the power of prayer and the Word, and the all-encompassing role Jesus now plays in his life. Excerpts of that interview follow:

Why was it important to put spirituality in [The Great Debaters]?

When I was about 20 years old, when I first started acting, I was sitting in my mother's beauty shop. And a woman just kept looking at me....and she said, "Someone give me a piece of paper." And she wrote down a prophecy. She said that I would speak to millions of people, and I would travel the world and preach to millions of people. And I didn't know what she was talking about. But this was March 27th, 1975, 32 years ago now, almost 33 years ago. So my work has been my ministry. In fact, I asked my pastor, years ago, "Do you think I should become a minister or a preacher? And he says, "Well, that's what you're doing already." And he felt, as I feel, that that's what she was talking about back then.

I've always understood why I've been blessed to be put in this situation. And I'm more than happy to take advantage of it and to preach, if you will, about what God has done in my life.

What sort of prayers do you say?

There's a lot of "thank yous." A whole lot of "thank yous." I started, I don't know how many years ago, just reading the Bible from cover to cover. And started with the New Testament and went back to the Old Testament, and went back to the New Testament... So that's how I start my day every morning.

You play, in so many of your movies, these very inspirational figures. And then, in others, of course, you play the bad guy. To what extent do your faith and values play a role in choosing parts?

Even in a role like "Training Day," the first thing I wrote on the script was, "The wages of sin is death." And it was important, actually, for me in making that film. They actually wanted the guy to live at the end. And I said no. I think the only way I could justify him living such an awful life, or living in the worst way, was for him to die in the worst way. I'm always looking for that?for some kind of a message. And sometimes I just choose not to do certain films.

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