Denzel Washington became 'bitter' after losing Oscar to Kevin Spacey

Denzel Washington became "bitter" and stop voting for the Academy Awards after losing the Best Actor Oscar to Kevin Spacey.

The Gladiator II actor revealed to Esquire that he did not take it well when Spacey took the gold statuette for American Beauty instead of him for The Hurricane in 2000.

"I'm sure I went home and drank that night. I had to. I don't want to sound like, Oh, he won my Oscar, or anything like that. It wasn't like that," he recalled.

"I went through a time then when (his wife) Pauletta would watch all the Oscar movies - I told her, I don't care about that. Hey: They don't care about me? I don't care. You vote. You watch them. I ain't watching that. I gave up. I got bitter. My pity party. So I'll tell you, for about fifteen years, from 1999 to 2014 when I put the beverage down, I was bitter."

At the time, Washington had already won Best Supporting Actor for 1989's Glory and been nominated for Cry Freedom and Malcolm X. Two years after his loss, the star finally took home the Best Actor Oscar for Training Day.

He has since been nominated four more times for Flight, Fences, Roman J. Israel, Esq. and The Tragedy of Macbeth.

As he reflected upon his loss, Washington revealed that there "was talk" about Spacey's behaviour at the time, 17 years before allegations of inappropriate behaviour brought his career to a halt.

"There was talk in the town about what was going on over there on that side of the street, and that's between him and God. I ain't got nothing to do with that. I pray for him. That's between him and his maker," he added.

Spacey was found not guilty on sexual misconduct charges after a trial in the U.K. last year, and a U.S. court dismissed a sexual assault case against him in 2022.

He is still involved in a civil case over a sexual assault claim, which he denies.