Laurence Fishburne
I return to the stage first and foremost because I'm an actor, and I love it.
Some people think of me as an actor and some as a movie star, so I sort of guess that makes me both. I love making movies, and I love playing on the stage.
Playing solo with an audience for an hour and 30 minutes without a break means I have to, as the jazz cats say, get into the shed and work on my chops.
There's a lot of stuff that's not good that's touted as being good.
I carry a lot of feminine energy as well as masculine energy, and that's the hit that people are getting. That vulnerable thing is not what we assume with black males. You get it, and then they cease to become scary. They become human. You cease to have a bogeyman.
Do mainstream crowds want to watch a movie about good things happening in black neighborhoods? Do black audiences want to see a little girl doing something in a white world?
It's important for a lot of young black males to value swagger over intelligence. Swagger is important, but intelligence must come before the swagger.
I don't want to be 45 years old and have been a hot actor when I was 33 and have people going, 'Whatever happened to Fishburne?'
I certainly believe that being in contact with ones spirit and nurturing ones spirit is as important as nurturing ones body and mind. We are three dimensional beings: body, mind, spirit.Collection: Believe
People think that I'm haughty and stuck up, but really I'm just very shy.Collection: Thinking
We know that passion, prejudice, party, and even good-will, tempt many who preserve a fair character with the world to deviate from truth in the laxity of conversation.Collection: Truth
The thing with kids is that you only get one chance to do it right. It's really important to share their gifts while they're discovering them. That's why spelling bees are such a compelling story. They stimulate them intellectually, they awaken their competitive spirit, but it's fun. There's something fun about words.Collection: Fun
I think everyone is very surprised at how matrix has become the pop culture phenomenon that it is.Collection: Thinking
I have a voice. It's one of my gifts. I intend to use it on behalf of the children that UNICEF seeks to aid.Collection: Children
When you're on screen with Mads, there's some real fireworks because your character is his intellectual equal. In a way, maybe your character has an instinct as to who this man really is.Collection: Real
I've been a fan of Mads since the “Casino Royale” movie. I really sat up and paid attention to him. I was like, “Who is this motherf**ker?” Even his work in something as sort of popcorn as “Clash of the Titans,” he brings a kind of danger and reality and he grounds it in such a way that you think, yes, I'm good to work with this guy. I should come back, just stay behind him. (Laughs) Our working relationship has been fantastic.Collection: Reality
I wouldn't say that going into a weekly television series is actually stepping away from anything. It's another medium in which to work as an actor.Collection: Actors