LOS ANGELES -- It was an argument Denzel Washington wasn't going to win.

If he wanted to direct The Great Debaters -- an understated drama set in the 1930s about some decidedly cerebral spectator sports -- he was going to have to cast a star. Just so happens, he only had to search as far as the mirror.

"I didn't want to be in the movie," the two-time Oscar winner tells journalists at the Four Seasons. "But in order to get enough of the money I felt we needed, I had to be in it. Once I knew that was the case, I was like, 'Okay, Denzel, just embrace it. Don't be negative about it. Just do it.' I usually do two or three or four takes and if I feel good, I just move on. I was more concerned with getting everyone else's performance. You know, I'm pretty good, so I figured two or three takes, I'll be okay -- I can cut it together in the editing room and build a performance out of it."

Opening Christmas Day in Toronto and other Canadian cities Jan. 18, the fact-based film stars Washington as Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College in Texas who led the underdog debate team to the national championships. Although the movie puts Washington's name above the title, it remains very much an ensemble piece -- including Forest Whitaker and led by a trio of unknowns as the titular debaters: Denzel Whitaker (no relation to Washington or Forest), Nate Parker and Jurnee Smollett. Altogether, it took Washington four years to make Debaters, marking another phase in his self-imposed evolution as a director. (He hit a plateau as an actor, he says, a decade ago.)

"He was our leader," says Smollett of Washington. "But it was a team effort. For him to check his ego at the door and ask what we thought about scenes was amazing to me. It spoke volumes about his character."

Which isn't to suggest Washington the director still didn't put his actors through the paces. Most notably, he enrolled them in a mini-debate camp. "Denzel was adamant about us researching (our roles) and knowing what we were talking about and being versed in debate," says Parker. "He thought we should be persuasive because we were actors."

Says Washington, "I call (Great Debaters) a sports movie. In those days, that's what it was. It was an event to go to."

But will audiences, accustomed to adrenaline, special effects and explosions, embrace it? Washington is optimistic the film, archaic as it may seem, can cut through the clutter. "I think the spoken word is still popular. It's no coincidence one of the dominant influences in our culture is hip-hop or rap, which is getting right back to poetry."

Like his first directorial effort, 2002's Antwone Fisher, Debaters is foremost a showcase for its youthful, unheralded cast.

Despite this, the 52-year-old superstar-turned-filmmaker says he's not interested in making movies just to discover -- and put a spotlight on -- fresh talent.

"If the movie had been about three 70 year olds, I don't think they'd be new actors. They might've been. But these were the roles and these were the actors who won the roles. I didn't do these films because I saw great opportunity for young actors. I saw a piece of material that interested me and I was moved by."

Maybe. But it's obvious Washington, a longtime supporter of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, feels a responsibility towards his juniors -- a theme reflected in Debaters.

"An environment was created for these people at Wiley College. It still is our responsibility as adults, which we have not done. Whatever our young people have are our fault, period. I don't care how you slice it. We created this environment, we created this world they are born into and it our responsibility to create an environment for them to excel."