The Lie That Got Laurence Fishburne His Big Break
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By Sophie McEvoy/Aug. 23, 2021 2:07 pm EST
But it was Fishburne’s supporting part in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” that totally transformed his career, which he secured thanks to a little lie about his age.
Laurence Fishburne considers his time on Apocalypse Now as the most formative part of his career
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Thankfully, Coppola was none the wiser until after the fact because the actor often credits his time on the film as one of the most formative experiences of his life. “That movie was really the beginning of me thinking of myself as an artist,” Fishburne told Collider. “It was the beginning of my understanding of cinema, it was the beginning of my understanding of the world,” he explained, adding that the drastic change of traveling from Brooklyn to the Philippines put his life in perspective.
“My work with Francis on ‘Apocalypse Now’ and all the films I did afterwards with him really shaped me and formed me as an artist,” Fishburne concluded.
