by Paul Fischer
by
Paul Fischer
Laurence Fishburne
gained widespread acclaim and an Oscar nomination for his 
gripping
performance as the Svengali-like Ike Turner in the Tina
Turner biopic What's Love Got to Do With It and went on to rack
up an impressive string of credits playing leads and supporting roles
on stage, screen, and television. Born in Augusta, Georgia, the sole child
of a corrections officer and an educator, Fishburne was raised in Brooklyn
following his parents' divorce. An unusually sensitive child with a natural
gift for acting, he was taken to various New York stage auditions before
landing his first professional role at the age of ten. Two years later,
in 1975, he made his feature film debut with a major role in Cornbread,
Earl and Me. A turning point in the young actor's career came when
he lied about his age and won the role of a young Navy gunner in Francis
Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. On location in the Philippines,
the teenage actor effectively bade farewell to childhood as he endured
the many legendary problems that befell Coppola's production over the
next two years. In between shooting days, Fishburne hung out with the
adult actors, often exposing himself to their off-screen drinking and
drugging antics.
Back in Hollywood by the late '70s, he continued playing small supporting
roles in features and on television. Like many black actors, he was frequently
relegated to playing thugs and young hoodlums. He would continue to appear
in Coppola productions like Rumble Fish and The Cotton Club
throughout the 1980s. Wanting a change from playing heavies, he accepted
a recurring role as friendly Cowboy Curtis opposite Paul Reubens
on the loopy CBS children's series Pee-Wee's Playhouse.
By the early '90s, Fishburne had begun to escape the stereotypical roles
of his early career. In 1990, he played a psychotic hit man opposite Christopher
Walken in Abel Ferrara's King of New York
and a chess-playing hustler in Searching for Bobby Fischer.
Following his great success in the Tina Turner biopic, he became one of
Hollywood's most prolific actors, appearing in films such as John
Singleton's Higher Learning . Fishburne, who had known
Singleton when the latter was a security guard on the Pee-Wee's Playhouse
set, had previously appeared in the director's debut film Boyz 'N
the Hood. After Higher Learning came Othello and
Always Outnumbered, which he also produced. Fishburne had previously
produced Hoodlum, in which he also starred. In 1999, he stepped
into blockbuster territory with his starring role in the stylish sci-fi
action film The Matrix. Increasingly geared towards /action films,
Fishburne could be seen in the fast and furious motorcycle flick Biker
Boyz as fans prepared for the release of the upcoming Matrix sequels
and will next be seen in the Clint Eastwood-directed
Mystic River.
CrankyCritic: Were you surprised at how The Matrix
has transformed things?
Laurence Fishburne: I think everyone is very surprised
at how The Matrix has become the pop culture phenomenon that
it is. I think we were all surprised.
CrankyCritic: What was it
about the first film that struck the chord with so many people?
Laurence Fishburne: There's a lot of things. The major
thing is that, in crafting and structuring their story, the Wachowski
brothers relied heavily on Greek mythology -- primarily the old myths
and the hero's journey, the reluctant messiah story, which is one of the
oldest stories and has been with us in every culture in some way or form.
They basically put it in a modern context and I think that's the thing
that everybody connected to.
CrankyCritic: There are also religious connotations.
Laurence
Fishburne: Yes there are. I did say reluctant messiah, didn't
I?
CrankyCritic: Did you ask
yourself, where does Morpheus come from?
Laurence Fishburne: No, I did not ask myself that. I
didn't have to ask myself that.
CrankyCritic: John the Baptist?
Laurence Fishburne: Well obviously, the Baptist is one
of the elements, one of the things that's inside of him. But the other
thing that is inside of him is the mythological thing, the idea of dream.
So it was really about embracing all of that and anything else that was
valuable, whether it was somebody specific some specific story, anything.
I don't know.
CrankyCritic: Could you identify with him?
Laurence Fishburne: Sure. I relate to him because he's
a man of faith. He has tremendous faith, and I have tremendous faith and
that's the place where we really connect. That's the place where I can
consciously say, oh yeah, we're similar. I'm sure there are other things
about me that are absolutely in line with him. I probably have a lot of
qualities that are similar to his, but I guess I'm too close to them to
really be able to go - oh yeah, that's what it is.
CrankyCritic: When you were
working on the first film, and no one knew how going to turn
out. Did you sense a difference when you came back to work on these?
Laurence Fishburne: I think for the brothers Wachowski
that there was a lot more pressure for them. I think it's the pressure
they put themselves under, more so than anything else. I think "perfectionists"
is one way of describing them. I really believe they care tremendously
about whatever it is they've made. They wanted it to be the way they've
imagined it. But then you get that coming down from the top kind of pressure,
that studio pressure etc. etc. I think they had a very good handle on
it. They seemed to anyway.
CrankyCritic: How did they
change from the first film?
Laurence Fishburne: They're pretty much the same guys.
CrankyCritic: What is the real Keanu like?
I've been working with him for five years. All I can tell you about Keanu
is that after I've spent that much time with him, I love the man, but
I can't tell you a thing about him.
CrankyCritic: Working far
away, spending so much time away from home. Does it affect the way you
work?
Laurence Fishburne: Well, I mean it affects your life.
It changes you. We were picked up and
dropped in another country, another culture. I found it, on one hand,
delightful and really quite exciting. On the other hand, you know, I was
away from my friends and my family and the familiar places. Simple things
like the kind of toothpaste you can get, the kind of soft drinks you can
get. You fall in love with some of the stuff that's there.
CrankyCritic: Talk about
balancing between character and special effects.
Laurence
Fishburne: Special effects are characters. Special effects are
essential Elements. Just
because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there. We found the
characters in the first movie. Certain aspects of it were a lot more fun
this time, but there's nothing like the first time. It's never as good
as the first time.
CrankyCritic: In spite
of the focus on Neo, Morpheus is still the center. The one with the will
and the determination.
Laurence Fishburne: It's interesting to hear you say
that because most people, in fact most of the people we were working with
would say - he's so different in this movie, he's changed. - No, we get
to see more. That's all it is. To see different levels of him. And the
fact of the matter is he's surrounded by naysayers in this movie. He's
surrounded by non-believers. And depending on whom you are and your perspective,
he either makes a believer out of you or he pushes you further away from
the idea of The One. Again, I think there were certain things about this
that were a lot more fun. Like the speechifying, the zealous testament
on the mount thing that he does, which is a lovely thing. Or even those
small exchanges he has with Niobe???? That really kind of great resolution
in the third movie.
CrankyCritic: You do some cool things.
Laurence Fishburne: Yeah, he got to do some really cool
things. I mean the whole freeway thing was very cool.
CrankyCritic: Were
you contracted to the sequel?
Laurence Fishburne: No, I was not. There was no thought
process at all. I remember when we were halfway through the first Matrix,
Larry and Andy sent me a small gift of a bottle of champagne with a note
that said - halfway there, one down, two to go. And I just kind of went
- okay. And we kind of speculate about that they might be like. And when
you receive the script, you wonder where they are going to take this.
Sometime in June or July of 2000, they called and said, we have a couple
of scripts ready for you to read, and we'll give you one first because
it's really quite overwhelming to have to read both of them back to back.
Okay, that's cool. And I read Reloaded, and I thought this is
wonderful. I was committed to do Reloaded and Revolutions
before I ever read the scripts. I didn't need to read the scripts to know
that I was absolutely a hundred per cent committed to doing these movies
- because of what we did on the first movie. Because of my experience
on the first movie told me that were absolutely brilliant writers, they're
absolutely visionary directors. They have absolutely achieved that which
they set out to achieve. So how could I miss? It was a new experience.
But I never thought about it. I was just like - that's what we're doing.
I didn't assume anything. They always knew it was a trilogy. They wrote
it as a trilogy. They just didn't give us all the information at the outset
because the studio wasn't going to sign off on it until they saw the results
of the first one.
CrankyCritic: When
we have the whole at Christmas, how do you think it will be perceived
in terms of the total package?
Laurence Fishburne: Gosh. It's definitely cinema-making
history. It's definitely the kind of thing that is going to be a pop cultural
stone for a generation at least.
CrankyCritic: What was the set like?
Laurence Fishburne: We had a lot of downtime since there
was so much going on. There's Reloaded going on, there's Revolutions
going on, both of them being shot outside of sequence. So one day
you could shoot a sequence from both movies. And The Matrix is
going on at the same time cause we're shooting a movie of the game. So
it was like being part of a hive.