Laurence Fishburne does Apocalypse Now in 1979. However, during the shooting, he faced a different situation.

In his words, he explained in Apple TV+’s new documentary Number One on the Call Sheet: Black Leading Men in Hollywood that he could not perform a scene well, which disappointed his director, Francis Ford Coppola.

“There’s a scene in Apocalypse Now that got cut from the original film, and then it’s been put back in the redux,” the John Wick star recalled. “I was 14, 15, whatever, trying to do this scene talking about sex and I had no sexual experience. Like, none.”

He continued that Francis “couldn’t figure out how to get me to be any more experienced than I am, but he kept asking me to do it over and over again. I did something like 40 takes. It was really bad.”

“And I could tell that he was disappointed. So I was feeling really, really down, really dejected,” he added.

But the actor remembered his co-star Martin Sheen cheered him up after his on-set experience.

“I heard Martin whisper in my ear, he said, ‘Did anyone ever tell you you were a really good actor?’” the 63-year-old said. “And I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘You’re a really good actor.’”

“That’s what being No. 1 on a call sheet is about for me,” Laurence concluded, referring to Martin.