Dakota Fanning got to boss Denzel Washington around after reuniting on The Equalizer 3

LAS VEGAS – With The Equalizer 3, Oscar winner Denzel Washington reprises one of his signature roles in the final instalment of the hit vigilante thriller franchise.

And it once again sees his retired intelligence agent character violently righting wrongs, only this time in Naples instead of Boston.

The movie is also a reunion of sorts for the star.

It reteams him and film-maker Antoine Fuqua, who directed the first two movies as well as crime drama Training Day (2001), which earned Washington a Best Actor Oscar.

The Equalizer 3 also co-stars actress Dakota Fanning, 29, with whom Washington first appeared in the action thriller Man On Fire (2004) almost two decades ago, when she was a child star.

In The Equalizer (2014) and The Equalizer 2 (2018), former government assassin Robert McCall (Washington) disrupts his quiet retirement in Boston to protect two abused young women, in the process taking on the Russian and Irish mobs.

In the third film, which opens in Singapore cinemas on Thursday, McCall tries to escape from his past by moving to Naples in southern Italy, and manages to find a measure of peace.

But he learns his new friends are being terrorised by the local mafia, and is moved to become an avenging angel again.

Washington, 68, spoke at a convention of American cinema owners in Las Vegas earlier in 2023 alongside Fuqua and Fanning, and he used the occasion to make the case for audiences watching films such as this at the theatre instead of at home.

“There are some movies that are ‘sit at home’ movies. There are some that are ‘sit at home, go to the bathroom during the commercial’ movies.

“Then there are ‘butt in the seat’ movies – ‘don’t move, don’t get popcorn, stay in your seat, don’t go to the bathroom’ movies, of which this is one,” says the American actor, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the period war drama Glory (1989).

Fanning’s character, a young Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst, becomes a key player in this.

Says the American actress, who got her first break at the age of seven in the Sean Penn-starring drama film I Am Sam (2001), for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination: “My character is a CIA agent who’s sought out by Denzel’s character, and she has to figure out why.

“She’s given a tip by him that takes her to Italy. So it’s figuring out why she’s the person he chose to give that information to, and then also figuring out what’s going on.”

“And why she bosses me around the entire movie – that’s what she’s trying to figure out,” Washington butts in jokingly.

“Tell them that part – how you bossed me around, how you made me do things,” says the veteran, who has four children: actor-son John David Washington, 39; 35-year-old daughter Katia; and 32-year-old twins Malcolm and Olivia.

He and Fanning have stayed in touch since they first worked together more than two decades ago.

“I’ve known Denzel for a big part of my life,” she says. “One of his daughters is one of my closest friends, so I’ve always been in the loop on what he’s up to.”

And Fuqua, 58, says the pair had a natural on-screen chemistry that made it a breeze to direct their scenes.

“It makes my life easier. It’s just a rhythm they have; they jump right in it. And I got to sit back and watch – that was my job,” adds the American film-maker.

The Equalizer 3 is also very much on brand for Washington, whom moviegoers have come to associate with a strong moral compass.

Says Fuqua: “Audiences have come to know what to expect from Denzel – a sense of honour, dignity and morals, a commitment to what’s right and determination to see that through.”

• The Equalizer 3 opens in cinemas on Thursday.