Laurence Fishburne gained prominence for his forceful authoritative characters in his films. Having gained stardom with his Morpheus role in The Matrix series, he has been working alongside Keanu Reeves in the John Wick film series since 2017. But his acting journey started getting on track when he earned a supporting role in Apocalypse Now.
While his role at a young age surprised many in Hollywood, he shared an interesting fact when he accepted the role. He confessed to lying about his age in the 1979 film.
Laurence Fishburne Lied About His Age in Apocalypse Now
The 61-year-old actor, Laurence Fishburne in a 2013 interview on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight revealed his casting secret in Apocalypse Now. He played the role of Tyrone ‘Mr. Clean’ Miller, a navy recruit in Francis Ford Coppola’s film. His character’s age was 17 years old but he was 14 when he bagged the role. He turned 15 while filming the lengthy film and eventually turned 18 on its release.
He opened up about convincing the Oscar-winning director to assure him that he was older than he looked at the time. He was silent almost the entire audition, which happened in New York. When producer, Fred Roos asked him about his age, he lied stating he was 16.
However, he later mentioned that they knew he was deceiving them which eventually meant, he was not lying to anyone.
“I think they knew, I don’t think I was fooling anyone.”
Laurence Fishburne Considers Apocalypse Now Team as His Family
Back in 2019, he had a reunion with his co-stars in the film. Expressing his gratitude, he shared how the film had a major impact on his life.
“You are my family because this was the first time I left home. It really shaped me, this experience. As an artist, and as a human being, really… There’s no way I could ever really say enough to thank all of you, the way that you treated me and looked at me.”
The movie had an ensemble cast including Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, and Dennis Hopper. Due to the unavoidable obstacles while filming, they all spent quite a long time together, which eventually made their bonding strong.
Fishburne once stated how he used to assume that filming takes a long period to shoot, “I was 14 and I thought that was normal, because it was only my second movie.”
He later on realized being in delusion as he worked alongside Clint Eastwood in 2018 in The Mule which wrapped up in 25 days. As for his war film, it performed well at the box office, grossing over $100 million worldwide.
Apocalypse Now is streaming on Netflix.
Source: CBC
