AceShowbiz - In a recent interview with Esquire, Denzel Washington shared his candid reflections on the 2000 Academy Awards, where he lost the Best Actor Oscar to Kevin Spacey for their performances in "The Hurricane" and "American Beauty", respectively.

Washington confessed to feeling bitter after his fourth Oscar nomination ended in disappointment. Despite his previous victory for "Glory" in 1989, he had yet to secure a win in the Best Actor category. "I'm sure I went home and drank that night," he recalled. "I had to."

The sting of the loss lingered with him for years. "I got bitter," he admitted. "My pity party." Washington said he stopped caring about the Oscars and refused to participate in the voting process. "I told my wife, 'I don't care. They don't care about me? I don't care,'" he explained. "You vote. You watch them. I ain't watching that."

However, just two years after his 2000 loss, Washington finally won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in "Training Day", making him the second Black actor to win in the category after Sidney Poitier. He has since received four more Oscar nominations.

Reflecting on his loss to Spacey, Washington acknowledged that it was a defining moment in his career. "Maybe I felt like everybody was looking at me," he said. "Thinking about it now, I don't think they were."

Ethan Hawke, Washington's co-star in "Training Day", recalled the actor's reaction to the loss. Hawke said that Washington told him it was better to lose the Oscar because it maintained the award's prestige. "You don't want an award to improve your status. You want to improve the award's status," Hawke explained Washington's perspective.

Despite the bitterness he initially experienced, Washington has maintained a successful career, earning numerous awards and nominations. His latest Oscar nod is for Best Supporting Actor in "Gladiator II".