Nobody in their right mind would go into the heart of darkness with Francis Ford Coppola. And by most accounts, a lot of the cast of Apocalypse Now wasn’t. But someone who really went for it was Laurence Fishburne, who famously landed his role at just 14, having lied about his age so he could go off and work on Apocalypse Now.
Fishburne – who played “Mr. Clean” in Apocalypse Now – remembered just how important it was for him to land that film, especially at such a young age. “It’s very difficult to describe what that whole situation was like, because, as you know, I was a young person. I was 14, I was 15, I was very impressionable. I was still developing and it was an impactful event in my life. It took two years. But I will say, looking back, the most important part of Apocalypse Now was really my apprenticeship in the world of the arts. It is where I apprenticed becoming an artist because I was working with great artists. I was in the company of Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Martin Sheen and Robert Duvall and Francis Ford Coppola. I was being influenced by those people and the choices that they made. And so really, Apocalypse is a great apprenticeship that I was fortunate enough to be given.” Fishburne also previously recounted a story in which he saved Emilio Estevez (son of Sheen) from quicksand while making the film. So, yeah, not exactly something today’s teenagers would normally go through…
While Laurence Fishburne was just a teen when he shot Apocalypse Now, he would turn 18 by the time the movie was finally released…more than three years after cameras first rolled. Of note, he was credited as Larry Fishburne, not going by Laurence until 1993’s What’s Love Got to Do With It. For that, he earned his only Oscar nomination to date, showing a brand change can work wonders for a career.
Despite fibbing on his resume (really, the last of Coppola’s problems on Apocalypse Now), Fishburne would go on to work with the director three times in the ‘80s with Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club and Gardens of Stone and will reunite with him with this month’s Megalopolis.