With a monumentally successful career that spans five decades, Laurence Fishburne has starred in two of the biggest and most renowned action franchises of the movie industry, that is, The Matrix and John Wick.
While he played crucial and pivotal roles in these two franchises, he has also worked in several other movies in his career, making him one of the most versatile actors in the industry.
Laurence Fishburne has always been passionate about acting. As a result, throughout his acting career, he has often transitioned between television and movies effortlessly. The actor was so passionate about showcasing his talent that he lied about his age to land himself in one of the most violent and gruesome action movies ever created in the history of cinema.
Laurence Fishburne’s Lie Landed Him One-in-a-million Role
Leading with one of the most diversified careers of this generation, Laurence Fishburne started acting at the young age of 11, when he started playing the role of Josh Hall on the daytime soap One Life to Live. However, he quit the role so that he could play Tyrone ‘Mr. Clean’ Miller in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.
However, the question remains how is a young boy of 14 allowed to star in one of the most gruesome action movies about the Vietnam War? Fishburne had lied to Coppola about his age assuring him that he was 16 years old, and he was older than he looked. When he was present on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight via Arogundade, he shared that despite lying about his age, everyone knew he was 16 and he was not deceiving anyone.
“I think they knew, I don’t think I was fooling anybody.”
Even though he had lied about his age so that he could bag the role of Tyrone Miller, it played a crucial role in his career. The Godfather director had the biggest influence on Fishburne’s career because “as an actor, Coppola trained me, that was my training ground.” Hence, he often credits the director for his success.
Laurence Fishburne Feels Apocalypse Now Shaped His Career
While the John Wick actor has worked in a plethora of films where he has played both main and supporting roles, he believes that his role in Apocalypse Now is how everything started and shaped him as an artist.
During an exclusive interview with Collider, Fishburne shared how his “understanding of cinema” began with the 1979 drama film, as he went away from a city to far away in the jungles of the Philippines.
“That movie was really the beginning of me thinking of myself as an artist. It was the beginning of my understanding of cinema, it was the beginning of my understanding of the world because I was suddenly taken out of Brooklyn and I was in the Philippines in the middle of Asia.”
“I was in a place where most of the people looked like me, so it opened up a whole world of possibilities. My work with Francis on Apocalypse Now and all the films I did afterwards with him (The Cotton Club, Rumble Fish, Gardens of Stone) really shaped me and formed me as an artist.”
Hence, his one lie helped him to shape a career full of successful projects that some celebrities can only dream of, making him one of the most renowned actors of this generation.
Apocalypse Now can be rented on AppleTV.
