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.

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].

With John Wick we wanted to do something like that. So rather than punching, kicks - and for the kind of way we wanted to shoot it, which is longer takes - our initial instinct was let's go with a throwing or grappling arm.

In fact rules are more important in our underworld than they are to the regular citizen who works within them.

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