NEW YORK -- In 1998, Denzel Washington starred as an FBI counterintelligence agent trying to track down Muslim extremists terrorizing New York City in "The Siege." Three years later, the accomplished actor found himself being escorted through the rubble of the World Trade Center trying to comprehend what had happened days earlier.

He remembers the eerie comments made by rescue workers looking for victims among the piles of debris.
"I must have heard 30 or 40 times, 'This ain't "The Siege," eh Denzel?'" says the 49-year-old actor.

Though it was nighttime, the area was brightly lit as rescuers hoped against hope that they would find survivors. The scene reminded Washington of a movie set. Then he noticed arrows painted on some of the exposed steel beams. Asking his guide what they were, he was chilled to learn that the arrows pointed to bodies and body parts. He looked around and noticed he was standing in a sea of arrows, and the reality of the devastation hit him.

The 9/11 tragedy made Washington recalls some portentous comments from CIA and FBI agents when he was researching his role for "The Siege." They said their departments were unprepared for a major terrorism act, and the only way that something disastrous could be avoided would be through the public's help.

Like "The Siege," Washington's latest film, "The Manchurian Candidate," also serves as a cautionary tale about current times, even though it is based on a novel that was written more than 40 years ago.

"The Manchurian Candidate" tells the story of a Gulf War veteran (Washington) who, through his dreams, uncovers an assassination conspiracy involving a vice presidential candidate. Once a platoon buddy of the candidate, Washington suspects they both have undergone some sort of brainwashing. As the election draws near, no one seems to want to listen to him, least of all those involved in the conspiracy. Liev Schreiber plays the candidate and Meryl Streep his overly ambitious senator-mother who will stop at nothing to get her son elected.

The Richard Condon novel and the 1962 movie, directed by John Frankenheimer, involved Cold War politics, centering on a communist plot to gain control of our government by covertly securing control of the vice president. In this adaptation, the conspirators vying to control the government are closer to home. They are capitalists hoping to secure their financial interests by controlling the political leadership. Inevitably, comparisons will be made to current political figures and companies with close ties to the Bush Administration.

Director Jonathan Demme, sporting a peace button on his collar, says he tried to make the film's politics ambiguous, but admits he personally is in the "ABB" (Anybody But Bush) camp regarding the upcoming election.

Washington, who fills the role of Ben Marco, originally played by Frank Sinatra in the 1962 classic, says the film is a cautionary tale in this information age.

"Mind control and brainwashing is not big science fiction stuff," he says. "It's your television set. It's information. Times Square is mind control."

Washington elected not to watch the Sinatra movie because he did not want it to influence his performance.

"I didn't want to be restricted," he says, adding that he relied on the script to create his character. "I wanted to be free to come up with whatever I came up with."

Coincidentally, Sinatra's daughter, Tina, who owns the rights to the story, is one of the new film's producers.

While some may question the necessity of remaking a classic film, Washington thinks otherwise.

"Good material is always worth retelling," he says.

The Oscar-winning actor also wanted to rejoin Demme, with whom he worked on the acclaimed AIDS drama "Philadelphia."

"The material came to me first and I sat down with the producer, Scott Rudin, and he had a short list of directors he was interested in," recalls Washington. "I had a shorter list ... of one. And that took care of that."

Demme calls Washington "an exciting, challenging actor"; one who is serious and focused on the set, and friendly and funny off. "He's Jekyll and Hyde, in other words," he adds.

Having nearly reached the mid-century mark, Washington has spent the past year reflecting on his life.

"You realize you're more than halfway ... on a good day," he says with a hearty laugh. "I'm embracing it. I want to be healthy and make new commitments. It's a good time for me."

The modest, church-raised actor recently allowed himself a rare frivolous indulgence. He bought a $320,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI.

"When I turned 40, I said that when I turn 50, I'm going to get myself a Bentley,' he says. "In the past 10 years, I became too old for one because every rapper and basketball player has one. So I took a Phantom on a test drive and I thought, why not? Stop cheating yourself. This is your life. Get what you want."

He quickly points out that he is not into mindless accumulation of material things, noting that nearly everything he is wearing were gifts, right down to his Sean "Jay-Z" Carter sneakers.

"Free socks, free underwear and these are the jeans I wore in 'Man on Fire' and the shirt's a promotion for Valentino," he says, laughing.

That is about as far as this notoriously private actor cares to go about his personal life, other than to say that he is planning a long-awaited family vacation to "someplace near a lot of water." He plans to read Bill Clinton's "My Life," during the break.

As one of the most popular leading men in Hollywood, Washington has played a string of heroic characters, often based on real, larger-than-life individuals. He almost invariably landed "good guy" roles until "Training Day" came along a couple of years ago and proved to the world that Washington was capable of playing quite the opposite.

His portrayal of corrupt cop Alonzo Harris in that film revealed another facet of the talented actor's ability that many fans hadn't seen before, and it scored him his second Oscar. (His first was for his role in the Civil War epic "Glory.")

Earlier this year, Washington starred in the highly stylized action-drama "Man on Fire," in which he played a bodyguard trying to compensate for his checkered past by doing something good. Similarly, Washington's Ben Marco character in "The Manchurian Candidate" is a troubled individual, trying to reconcile his memory of past events with a recurring nightmare. Like his character in "Courage Under Fire," his character is a Gulf War veteran. But that's where the similarities end, observes Washington.

"I already had researched Gulf War syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder," he says. "I didn't have to revisit all that for this character. In fact, I chose not to because I felt this guy, at the point where we meet him, feels that is not what's wrong with him."

Washington next rejoins "Training Day's" Antoine Fuqua on the biopic "Tru Blue," about Harlem drug kingpin Frank Lucas. Production is slated to start this fall with a 2006 release.