Not only is Denzel Washington one of the greatest actors of our time, but he also seems to be quite the gentleman!

Power star Omari Hardwick recently revealed that Denzel and his wife Paulette saved him when he was homeless and living out of his car before his acting gigs started to pay off. “I came out here without a lot of money and I met Paulette and Denzel Washingon via John David, their oldest son and I worked at Campbell Hall, the high school he went to here in the valley,” Omari said.

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“And I was teaching, substitute but coaching and I moreso became his mentor and his trainer at UCLA on Saturdays. So that kind of gave me inroads to this sort of figure in Denzel and an aunt figure in Pauletta,” said Hardwick.

He then explained how they literally saved him from being out on the streets. “They perfectly and appropriately didn’t help me out. They gave me shelter when I didn’t have a place to stay or whatever but they sort of allowed me to be close enough to the family so I sort of transitioned into getting an agent…the whole thing…doing all these odd jobs. Pursuing firefighting as a backup. Pursuing it at least and on the day that I said no to the fire department was the day Spike Lee offered me my first acting gig.”

Who knew! What a compelling story. See the full video clip below.