Throwback Thursday was full of Black dad energy when a photo of Denzel Washington, acclaimed Hollywood actor and everyone's favorite uncle, took us on a trip down memory lane.

The photo shows a warmly dressed Washington sitting patiently in front of the Capitol Building,  surrounded by empty chairs, for Barack Obama's historic 2009 presidential inauguration. 

Washington spoke about the photo on BBC's The Graham Norton Show, explaining what lead up to the iconic picture. 


In this episode, released January 2013, Graham Norton displays the photo and Washington quickly quips "my wife," suggesting she was to blame for the early bird mood, as the audience laughs.

He explains the event started at 1 p.m. and the picture was from "like 7 in the morning."

Washington already told us part of the reason his marriage has lasted this long is because he listens to his wife. So naturally, when she told him "we gotta make sure we get seats," Washington made sure they did just that. 

"We had orange tickets, they had different color tickets. And I had done all of this stuff, made all these speeches for … the president and they gave me these seats that are like 30 rows back. I said 'nah nah nah, I'm moving up' so I moved up front and that's me waiting for my family to get there," the legendary actor, who won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Training Day, said. 

"So where is your wife" Norton asks.

"In a warm bed, I was actually there about three hours too early," he responds. 

Norton then asks, "So have you put that paper down to save a seat for her?" to which Washington laughingly agrees. 

Twitter got hold of the nostalgia and chimed in.

Obama also gave a nod to Washington when he walked out to announce his 2008 election victory in Chicago's Grant Park. The 44th president entered the arena to the theme song from Remember the Titans, where Washington plays a football coach reviving a struggling team.

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