Denzel Washington left struggling to speak after he ‘bit his tongue almost half-off’

Denzel Washington “bit his tongue almost half-off” and is struggling to speak.

The 70-year-old actor revealed he suffered the random ordeal some months ago that has been “forced to slow down” as he deals with his “swollen mouth organ”.

“I bit my tongue almost half-off a few months ago. It’s affecting my speech. It forces me to slow down,” he told The New York Times.

“I have to use it. I have a line: “’Whither will you that I go to answer this your charge?’ It’s hard because my tongue is swollen. It has affected everything.”

When asked how religion fits into his career, he said: ‘that’s why you pray every day”.

“I’m like, okay Lord, I’m here, I think this is what you wanted me to do. Now I’m not sure why, but one can say coincidence and serendipity and all those things.”

The ‘Equalizer’ star did not clarify how he came to cause himself the injury nor did he reveal whether he had received any medical treatment.

But the Academy Award-winning actor now applies a religious viewpoint to everything in life and has even found that the themes of “jealousy and envy” found in the Shakespearean play ‘Othello’ - which he is currently starring in on Broadway - have taken on a new meaning for him.

“At this point, everything I’m doing is through the lens of what God thinks, not what they think.

“There’s some interesting themes [in ‘Othello’] of jealousy and envy and pain and death. And Kenny, the brilliant director, he’s putting it in what he calls the near future. So all of those things — jealousy, envy — it takes on a whole new thing with the information age.”