Laurence Fishburne reflects on brutal Matrix training: “Athletes are always in pain”
More than 25 years later, Fishburne says the physical impact of the film never fully faded.
More than 25 years have passed since The Matrix redefined action cinema and heavily influenced the pop culture for decades to come. Yet, for Laurence Fishburne, the memory of becoming the iconic Morpheus is still physically palpable. During a r conversation at this year’s Marrakech Film Festival, the legendary actor opened up about the immense physical toll required to bring the Wachowskis’ vision to life.
Fishburne reflected on a career (vía Variety) and revealed that his preparation for The Matrix demanded a completely different level of commitment. Fishburne noted that he, along with co-stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, were essentially the first Western actors to fully adopt the “Hong Kong style” of martial arts for a major production.
He knows (and remembers) Kung Fu
“We were essentially the first Western actors to work in the Hong Kong style, and so [martial arts choreographer] Yuen Woo-ping was very concerned that we weren’t going to be able to [pull it off],” said Fishburne.”So he trained us really hard — 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 — like when you go to the gym and then you’re sore for a day. They’re in pain all the time.”
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Nevertheless, Fishburne considers that he still carries part of that training, as a muscle memory more than a quarter-century later. “It’s all — I mean, it’s still in the body. We each had two trainers, and they worked us really, really hard!”
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