OnlyOnAOL: Let's talk about Denzel Washington and that horse

By: Donna Freydkin

For Oscar winner Denzel Washington, one of our last remaining true movie stars and icons, playing bounty hunter Sam Chisolm in the remake of "The Magnificent Seven" proved to be more of a slow trot than a gallop.

Meaning, bonding with the steed he rode in the film took time. And Washington was more than willing to invest it.

"It starts with my horse," says Washington. "I started riding six, eight months out. I would ride two, three times a week. It was the horse I'd use in the movie."

The two, says Washington, had conversations of a sort. "I talked to him. He talked back to me."

The end result was a triple-crown on-screen winner. "The horse gets to know you," says Washington. "You develop a relationship."

Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio and director Antoine Fuqua talked about their massive western -- shot almost entirely without CGI, and featuring a diverse cast that's a rarity in Hollywood.

"That subject is important obviously," says Fuqua. "We just wanted to make a great movie, honestly. We wanted to reflect what the west was really like, based on the research."

Of the bunch, who's the best shot?

"Chris can hit anything with anything," says D'Onofrio.

"That was what I did growing up. I grew up in a small place where you could walk outside and start shooting guns and no one called the cops," says Pratt.