In Philadelphia (1993), Denzel Washington played Joe Miller, a personal-injury lawyer who takes on the case of Andrew Beckett, played by Tom Hanks, a lawyer fired by his firm after developing AIDS. Directed by Jonathan Demme, the film was one of the first major Hollywood dramas to confront the AIDS crisis and the prejudice surrounding it.
Washington’s Joe Miller begins the film as a man with his own prejudices, taking the case for the fee and keeping his distance from his client. What follows is a performance of quiet transformation: Miller learns, listens and finally fights with everything he has, and Washington lets the audience watch that change happen in his face. It is a generous, humane performance, and a reminder that Washington’s greatest gift has always been making decency feel dramatic.