Spike Lee Says A$AP Rocky Went “Toe To Toe” With Denzel Washington In New Film: “They Were Going At It”

A new Spike Lee joint is set to take film lovers on another ride this month, and sitting in the driver’s seat is Denzel Washington once again. For Highest 2 Lowest, the legendary director and veteran actor were in good company, as the former declared A$AP Rocky was able to go “toe to toe” with the latter in front of the camera.

“Yeah, don’t sleep on A$AP,” Lee said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last night (July 31). “In this film, Denzel and A$AP go toe to toe.”

The Do The Right Thing director added he always thought the two would be able to emulate the perfect father-son dynamic. “What’s interesting is, even before I got involved with this film, I always thought that A$AP looked like he could be Denzel’s son. There’s a big resemblance. So when you see it on the screen, it adds an element of father and son. Don’t sleep on A$AP. Don’t sleep on A$AP,” he emphasized.

Lee also commended Rocky’s ability to keep his cool around an acclaimed movie star like Denzel, as he’s witnessed other actors in the past who couldn’t do the same, adding, “I’ve done five films with Denzel, and when he’s in a scene with somebody, they just get overwhelmed. He’s one of the world’s greatest living actors. But A$AP wasn’t having that. Toe to toe. I mean, they were going at it.” Watch the interview below.

Highest 2 Lowest hits theaters on Aug. 15, followed by an Apple TV+ release on Sept. 5. The movie is an English-language reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 Japanese kidnapping drama High and Low, which is loosely based on the 1959 novel King’s Ransom by Ed McBain (Evan Hunter). The cast includes Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, Ice Spice, Dean Winters, John Douglas Thompson, LaChanze, Aubrey Joseph, Michael Potts, Wendell Pierce, and Elijah Wright.

The film marks Lee and Washington’s fifth collaboration, following Mo’ Better Blues (1990), Malcolm X (1992), He Got Game (1998) and Inside Man (2006). As for the “Peso” artist, he’s no newbie to the big screen with credits in Dope, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, and Monster.

View the Highest 2 Lowest trailer above.