Laurence Fishburne is recalling just how “disappointed” Francis Ford Coppola was in part of his “Apocalypse Now” performance.
Fishburne, who later reunited with Coppola for “Rumble Fish,” “The Cotton Club,” “Gardens of Stone,” and 2024’s Razzie winner “Megalopolis,” said during the Apple TV+ documentary “Number One on the Call Sheet: Black Leading Men in Hollywood” that while filming 1979’s “Apocalypse Now,” his own lack of real-life “sexual experience” impacted his acting ability.
Fishburne was age 14 when he was cast in the film; a scene cut from the original theatrical release (and later re-added in Coppola’s 2001 redux cut) included Fishburne’s soldier character detailing sex. However, Coppola did not find Fishburne convincing.
“There’s a scene in ‘Apocalypse Now’ that got cut from the original film, and then it’s been put back in the redux,” Fishburne said, from The Hollywood Reporter. “I was 14, 15, whatever, trying to do this scene talking about sex and I had no sexual experience. Like, none.”
He added that Coppola “couldn’t figure out how to get me to be any more experienced than I am” and kept “asking me to do it over and over again.”
“I did something like 40 takes. It was really bad,” Fishburne said. “And I could tell that he was disappointed. So I was feeling really, really down, really dejected.”
It was Fishburne’s co-star Martin Sheen who helped him overcome the scene. “I heard Martin whisper in my ear, he said, ‘Did anyone ever tell you you were a really good actor?’” Fishburne said. “And I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘You’re a really good actor.’”
According to Fishburne, Sheen “saved [his] life,” saying of Sheen, “That’s what being No. 1 on a call sheet is about for me.”
The acclaimed “Apocalypse Now” was, at the time of its release, deemed by many to be a commerical failure, despite tying for the Palme d’Or at Cannes and receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Coppola reflected on the film’s legacy during an anniversary event in 2019.
“The avant-garde of yesterday is the wallpaper design of today,” Coppola said about negative reviews. “Some of the greatest artists of their day, we may have never heard of them. But the ‘failures’ like Van Gogh or Rousseau, who had to take his paintings around in a wheelbarrow — you’d give your eyeteeth now to have those paintings. The things you get fired for when you’re young are the same things you get Lifetime Achievements for when you’re old.”
