When I first met Laurence I was Keanu's [Reeves] stunt double on the first Matrix. So, a little evolution there with career status. But then cut to the thirteen/fourteen years later where now I'm asking Laurence Fishburne to trust my directorial capacity [in John Wick 2].

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].

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.

Character imperfection is the important thing to keep them from being superheroes.

When I first met Laurence I was Keanu's [Reeves] stunt double on the first Matrix. So, a little evolution there with career status. But then cut to the thirteen/fourteen years later where now I'm asking Laurence Fishburne to trust my directorial capacity [in John Wick 2].

I have a very strong belief in what I like, or a very strong opinion in genre films that I like to watch.

Laurence [Fishburn] helped redo some of the dialogue [in John Wick 2], he and Keanu [Reeves] workshopped it. And he couldn't have been more respectful couldn't have been more brilliant on set. I said, "look, I'm gonna have to work you a little bit here cause I only get you for three days." He never left set, was always engaging, always working on his lines, it was awesome.