<\/p>\n
Laurence Fishburne has plenty of sore memories from his time in \u201cThe Matrix.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were essentially the first Western actors to work in the Hong Kong style,\u201d he says of himself and co-stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss. \u201cAnd so [martial arts choreographer] Yuen Woo-ping was very concerned that we weren\u2019t going to be able to [pull it off]. So he trained us really hard \u2014 training us like professional athletes. And it was in the middle of that training I realized why they pay professional athletes so much money: Because professional athletes are always in pain. Not in pain sometimes \u2014 like when you go to the gym and then you\u2019re sore for a day. They\u2019re in pain all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n The grueling effort clearly paid off, visible not only in the film\u2019s now-iconic fight sequences but also in the muscle memory Fishburne still carries more than a quarter-century later. \u201cIt\u2019s all \u2014 I mean, it\u2019s still in the body,\u201d he laughs. \u201cWe each had two trainers, and they worked us really, really hard!\u201d<\/p>\n During a relaxed and rollicking conversation at this year\u2019s Marrakech Film Festival, Fishburne reflected on a career defined by transformation. Over 90 minutes \u2014 with a few technical hiccups along the way \u2014 he traced his path from \u201ca wise-ass street urchin\u201d whose \u201cuniverse was six blocks in Brooklyn\u201d to his defining roles in \u201cApocalypse Now,\u201d \u201cKing of New York,\u201d \u201cBoyz N the Hood,\u201d and \u201cThe Matrix,\u201d often stressing his need to defy expectations.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m always looking for ways to surprise the audience,\u201d he explains. \u201cI\u2019m always trying to change a little here, shift a little there, so it\u2019s not familiar visually \u2014 not someone you instantly recognize or can predict. Instead, I want to create a character who surprises you, someone in whom you either see yourself or someone you know.\u201d<\/p>\n That philosophy guided his portrayal of the loose-cannon Jimmy Jump in Abel Ferrara\u2019s \u201cKing of New York.\u201d Fishburne drew from a familiar archetype \u2014 \u201ca classic \u2018two-gun kid\u2019 from American westerns,\u201d he says. \u201cThat young, reckless guy with two guns, like the character Kevin Costner plays in \u2018Silverado\u2019\u201d \u2014 while layering in costumes, mannerisms, and quirks to make for something entirely fresh.<\/p>\n \u201cJimmy Jump, for me, is the first hip-hop gangster on film,\u201d Fishburne continues. \u201cIt came from intuition, from being from New York, spending time in those neighborhoods, going to hip-hop shows, knowing graffiti writers and breakdancers. I was very much part of that culture. I even knew someone who called himself a hip-hop gangster \u2014 he wanted to be a rapper but also had another side business. And I thought, \u2018Why haven\u2019t I ever seen this type of character in movies?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Fishburne experienced a different kind of recognition after his role as Furious Styles in John Singleton\u2019s \u201cBoyz N the Hood.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was living in Venice, California, right after the movie came out, when a young man approached me,\u201d he recalls. \u201cHe had tears in his eyes and didn\u2019t quite know how to express himself, except to say thank you for the movie. I responded gently and thanked him, but I was deeply moved by the raw emotion he was showing.\u201d<\/p>\n Roger Guenveur Smith, a friend and co-star from \u201cKing of New York,\u201d put the encounter in perspective. \u201cRoger turned to me and said, \u2018You don\u2019t understand what happened.\u2019 I asked him what he meant, and he explained, \u2018When you played Furious Styles, you essentially became the father to a fatherless generation of boys.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The actor maintained that fatherly demeanor once technical issues threatened to derail the talk \u2013 keeping measured as he calmed a restive audience. \u201cYou\u2019re all so beautiful,\u201d he said to cheers. \u201cThank you for being here.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.aol.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Laurence Fishburne has plenty of sore memories from his time in \u201cThe Matrix.\u201d \u201cWe were essentially the first Western actors to work in the Hong Kong style,\u201d he says of himself and co-stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss. \u201cAnd so [martial arts choreographer] Yuen Woo-ping was very concerned that we weren\u2019t going to be able […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2187046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[342539,306645,421928,371496,356847],"class_list":["post-2187045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-carrie-anne-moss","tag-keanu-reeves","tag-king-of-new-york","tag-laurence-fishburne","tag-professional-athletes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/\u2018I-Was-in-Pain-All-the-Time.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2187045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2187047,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187045\/revisions\/2187047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2187046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2187045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2187045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2187045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}