Denzel Washington Stars in his First Western, 'Magnificent Seven'

— -- Two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington stars in the highly anticipated remake "Magnificent Seven."

Rather than the seven helping to defend a Mexican town from bandits as in the original, the new seven led by Denzel's Sam Chisolm are mercenaries hired by widow Emma (played by Haley Bennett) to wrest an American town from a corrupt industrialist.

This is Denzel's first Western. The actor even learned to ride a horse and shoot a six-shooter.

"You just practice," Denzel said on 'GMA' "You're with your horse everyday, you know, I like that.

"It actually speaks to the reality in the 1870s," he added of his new film, which opens Friday. "That's more typical than you know, movies of the 40s and 50s where there's nobody [that] looks like us."

When he's not acting, Denzel spends his time working with the Boy and Girls Club of America, which he joined as a kid in 1960.

"I grew up in the club, then it was the Boys Club, now it's the Boys and Girls Club," he said. "So, I can speak honestly about what it did for me. I was just telling Michael [Strahan], when I was a kid, they took us to Yankee Stadium to meet the Giants. We had different programs so its's just a positive place, a safe place. The statistics show kids that grow up in the club graduate at a higher rate from high school and from college, so in every way, it's just good."