Overview
- Speaking at New York Comic Con on Oct. 12, Laurence Fishburne offered a first-person account of preparing the Morpheus–Neo dojo fight.
- He detailed a training arc of six months before traveling to Australia followed by about four months of rehearsal on location, with the scene filmed over roughly three days.
- Fishburne said rehearsals were only marked rather than performed at full intensity, and during filming both he and Keanu Reeves finished with black-and-blue forearms.
- Joe Pantoliano described the sequence as continuous and ballet-like with minimal cuts, crediting the approach with influencing later action filmmaking.
- Fishburne also said he offered to return for the fourth Matrix film but his offer was not accepted, with no change to franchise casting confirmed.