Laurence Fishburne is a real-life hero.
On a Monday episode of “Daily Blast Live,” actor Martin Sheen shared a remarkable story about the time Fishburne saved Sheen’s son Emilio Estevez’s life on the set of their 1979 film “Apocalypse Now.”
Estevez came to visit Sheen on the set and while he was there met Fishburne. Sheen explained, “They became fast friends and they were out in the boat one day and the boat got stuck.” The 80-year-old continued, “Emilio got out of the boat to clear the area and he began to sink into the mud and he went under, and Larry [Fishburne] very quickly moved and pulled him on board.”
At the time, Sheen said Fishburne was only 14 years old, while Estevez, who is currently 59, “was about 12 or 13.” Although Sheen has talked about the incident before in a 2012 interview with the Hudson Union Society, his co-star has yet to mention it. Sheen said it was years before he found out that the almost fatal incident occurred. “We didn’t know about it until about 30 years later. Emilio never mentioned it,” he said. Sheen added that he did end up calling Fishburne to say “Thank you. I appreciate you saving our son’s life.”
Fishburne has given credit to the film for helping him understand the movie world more. In a 2018 interview with AP, the Emmy-award-winning actor said, “That movie was really the beginning of me thinking of myself as an artist. It was the beginning of my understanding of cinema, it was the beginning of my understanding of the world, because I was suddenly taken out of Brooklyn and I was in the Philippines in the middle of Asia.”
The soon-to-be 60-year-old added, “I was in a place where most of the people looked like me, so it opened up a whole world of possibilities. My work with Francis [Ford Coppola, the director] on ‘Apocalypse Now’ and all the films I did afterwards with him really shaped me and formed me as an artist.”
Since that movie, Fishburne has gone on to be cast in plenty of various roles for comedy, action, sci-fi, historical dramas, etc. and he’s still got more to come. It was recently confirmed that he will be reprising his role of The Bowery King in the upcoming “John Wick 4” movie. He’s been a part of the franchise since 2014 alongside his co-star Keanu Reeves, whom he’s also worked with multiple times on the “Matrix” movie series. He’s also got a movie called “The Ice Road” coming out with Liam Neeson on Netflix next week.
“John Wick 4” is set to be released next year in May.
