Denzel Washington Claps Back at Fans Outside Event

Acclaimed actor Denzel Washington has played plenty of no-nonsense characters throughout his nearly five-decade career. On Oct. 23, the Oscar winner seemingly called back to some of those roles while interacting with fans outside an event in New York City.

Washington was walking into New York 's Museum of Modern Art for their annual Film Benefit when he appeared to get annoyed with people taking photos and clamoring for him to walk over and sign autographs, according to Page Six . In video from TMZ , the Equalizer star seemingly confronted one of the people taking pictures and asked them to put their camera down.

"Yo, yo, yo. Put this down," the actor said. "I heard you, you keep talking about showing love, I got nothing but love for y'all, but respect me first. I said I’ll see you when I get out. Which part of that don’t y’all understand?"

"Or not. Or not," he continued. "We could do it another way. Either way, because I can do it both ways, y'all. You feel me?"

Later that night, Washington played it cool as he gave a speech praising Samuel L. Jackson , the honoree for the MoMA Film Benefit this year. "He's family to me. He's my children's uncle," the Training Day star said, per People . "Nothing but love for you, brother, respect for you. I'm here for you. I'm glad that I'm here for you. I look forward to seeing you and working with you. God bless you."

Washington is set to star as Macrinus in the highly anticipated Gladiator II , in theaters Nov. 22.