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First in His Life: Laurence Fishburne by Chip Brantley Few actors present themselves so similarly on-screen and off as Laurence Fishburne. Dressed in a black silk frock and burnt orange mocassins at a press day for his feature directorial debut Once in the Life, Fishburne could have passed for Morpheus (minus bald head, cranial implants), as he spoke frankly--with left fist tucked into right hand---about how "all art is one." When he admonished one interviewer for not paying attention during the screening of his movie, he was a dead-ringer for Furious Styles--harsh and honest in his scolding but never excessive. When asked about his favorite of the characters he's played, Fishburne mentions 20/20 Mike, the powerfully intuitive, good-hearted criminal he wrote for himself in Once in the Life, originally a play that he adapted for the screen after finding success with it on the stage. The story tracks the strength of different bonds, after 20/20 Mike and his half-brother, Torch, nab a heroin shipment that was intended for Mike's oldest friend, whom Mike mistakenly thought was out of "the life." The three discover to tragic effect the driving theme of the film, that "once in the life, always in the life." |
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Q: What was it like to direct a project that you wrote and were starring in? How did you juggle the different roles? A: It's all the same responsibility to me. It's not about wearing different hats. It's all coming out of one head. Acting is great because you get to play. Writing is incredibly fun but also incredibly painful for me. Directing is beautiful because you get to create these situations, these environments for other people to play in. It was a lot of fun to direct. Q: Was taking on that new role of director difficult though? A: I've been making movies for 29 years. It's not like something that is new to me. [As the director], you get to say, "You know what, guys, we're going to go over here and we're going to build this thing." It's the nuts and bolts, plus a lot of intuition about who you get. On Once in the Life, I worked with a lot of people I [had] worked with as an actor. I tried to create the best environment for everybody to do their best work. It's about being able to communicate with people, recognize their strengths and give them the space, to trust them. Q: Have you always wanted to direct or is it something you came to through your acting? A: I found out I wanted to direct when I was 17 years old. I was at Francis Coppola's house in Napa, California, after Apocolypse Now. It was his 40th birthday and he was sitting around with a bunch of us, talking to us about our futures and what we wanted to do. He pointed to several of us and said, "You guys want to direct. I know you do." It wasn't until he said it that I really recognized that I did and he was right. |
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Q: Has Coppola had a big influence on you? A: He's mostly responsible for the kind of the artist I am. Q: Is there any movie or book that has had an influence on you? A: Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. It left me with the big questions: Who are you? Who are you going to be? What are you going to do with your life? Q: With your first directorial effort out of the way, are you looking for any particular kind of project to have a go at next? A: I'm not for looking for anything specifically. I'm in a really great place in my life and in my career. I'm very happy with the film that I've made, I've made the film I wanted to make. I'm very happy to be going back to work on the next two Matrix movies. I am probably going to get some offers to do some very interesting things, and probably some offers to do some things that are not so interesting. But I'll create my own opportunities. I try to pick things that I'm moved by, I try to pick things that I like, I try to pick things that speak to me. Q: Speaking of the next two Matrix movies, what can you tell us about the cast or plot? A: I have no knowledge about any of that and I'm not at liberty to say. |