We’re in a high-rise New York hotel room. Outside is bitter cold. Denzel Washington is wearing an exquisitely tailored black suit and has neatly coiffed hair, very much the opposite of how I’ve just seen him in his new film, Roman J Israel, Esq. It’s about a lawyer who is weirdly brilliant and also just weird. It’s about being a truth-teller and how his life comes undone. For most of the film he wears an oversized burgundy suit that seems a bit last century and sports a mini ’fro.

He immediately takes issue. “Burgundy? You think that was a burgundy suit ...?” The eyebrows rise. “I thought it was maroon. You don’t think there’s a difference between burgundy and maroon?”

Straight off, he’s on sparkling, combative