Laurence Fishburne names his favourite three movies
Since the 1970s, Laurence Fishburne has worked alongside some of cinema’s biggest names, ranging from Francis Ford Coppola to Steven Spielberg and Spike Lee. After beginning his career as a child, by the time he was 14, having lied about his age in the process, Fishburne had landed a role in Apocalypse Now.
Following his portrayal of Tyrone ‘Mr. Clean’ Miller, Fishburne returned to work with Coppola on Rumble Fish and The Cotton Club before appearing in Spielberg’s The Color Purple. However, the following decade gave the actor some of his most notable credits, such as King of New York and Boyz n the Hood. By 1993, he had earned himself an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Actor’ after playing Ike Turner in the Tina Turner biopic, What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Yet, despite each of those acclaimed efforts, Fishburne has become best known for his role as the leather-clad Morpheus in The Matrix franchise alongside Keanu Reeves. The pair eventually reunited for the John Wick franchise, with Fishburne playing The Bowery King while Reeves portrays the titular character.
It’s fair to say that Fishburne has enjoyed an impressive career, one that he has worked hard at since childhood. In an interview with Yahoo News, the actor explained: “I found my passion when I was ten years old. I had artistic goals more than anything else. I was inspired by certain performers, and I wanted to carve out a career comparable to the people I admired: Mr. [Sidney] Poitier, James Earl Jones, Peter O’Toole, Richard Burton.”
With a keen love for cinema, Fishburne shared his three favourite movies on The Rich Eisen Show. To kick things off, he picked Lawrence of Arabia, the historical epic starring one of his favourite actors, Peter O’Toole. Directed by David Lean, the film is widely considered one of the greatest movies ever made, coming to influence some highly successful pieces of cinema in the following decades, such as Star Wars, Avatar and even the hit animated children’s film Frozen.
Fishburne also cites To Sir, With Love from 1967 as a favourite. The British drama stars another of his most beloved actors, Sidney Poitier, as Mark, an immigrant who takes up a teaching job in a rundown school in London’s East End. At a time when it was rare for black actors to lead popular films, Poitier, who became the first black man to win ‘Best Actor’ at the Oscars, paved the way for young aspiring actors such as Fishburne. He explained to Yahoo News: “It wasn’t intangible to me. If they could do it, I could do it and I gave it a shot to see if I could make it happen.”
However, Fishburne chose to detail his love for Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption, explaining that he loves how it depicts “the passage of time”. He also stated that “it’s a great bromance”, and he enjoys how the characters develop over the course of the film. “When you think about Morgan Freeman’s performance […] If the movie had been made during the period of time in which it takes place in the 1930s, he was playing the James Cagney part. And that just for me, as an actor and a man of colour, was really inspirational.”
Laurence Fishburne’s favourite movies:
- Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
- To Sir, With Love (James Clavell, 1967)
- The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994)
