On the red carpet for his newest work, The School for Good and Evil, a kind of campy fairy fantasy TV series adapted from the mid aughts-YA novels, Laurence Fishburne was asked about The Matrix Resurrections. I mean, the film is nearly 12 months past its release date and if Mister Fishburne had something to say he would have likely said so by this point, but that’s not my business.
Regardless, Variety asked, and Fishburne, the epitome of patience and professionalism, adopted a middle of the road response that I feel everyone can respect. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. And it wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be,” Fishburne said during the red carpet event for something entirely unrelated. “But I thought Carrie-Anne and Keanu really did their thing.”
Uplifiting the actors while remaining solid in his stance of mild interest and relatively distant appreciation? What a great answer, what a lovely stance. Fishburne, of course, famously played Morpheus in the original series, and his character died at the end of the trilogy. In Resurrections, Morpheus is back, but his personality is uploaded into a different body, that of actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (who did an incredible job, in my opinion).
Variety continued to press Fishburne and asked if he felt he had “missed out,” as if these types of casting decisions aren’t delicate, complex affairs incolving multiple people and negotiations, Fishburne just said, “No, not really.”
The School for Good and Evil is streaming on Netflix
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