Keanu and I were in New York, I was prepping John Wick 2. And when Keanu [Reeves], [writer] Derek Kolstad, and myself sat down and wrote the character, it was completely, one hundred percent based on Laurence Fishburne. Like, in my head I saw this guy.

Honestly, when you think of any great action hero or any great hero out there or great character actor, you kind of transcend the character. You just don't love the character, you love the guy. In any of the great action stars, you see the guy doing the work.

We're under Rigan Machado, who I think is one of the best jiu jitsu instructors at least in Los Angeles, if not in the world. We have a lot of his instructors here, as well as Japanese jiu jitsu, Japanese judo, and sambo. That was Keanu's [Reeves] recipe [in John Wick 2].

I spent a lot of time with both [Laurence Fishburn and Keanu Reeves], obviously, on the Matrix trilogy. Worked a lot, on a day-to-day level, with Laurence Fishburne. And then we'd bumped into each other through the film community for years and years.

I think we're all kind of alike when you do your first film. You have great hopes, but you don't hope too much.

I'm an audience member too, man. I hate shitty sequels.

Laurence [Fishburne] is a great example of how to communicate to the audience as you're acting with another actor.