Emilio Estevez is the brother of Charlie Sheen and the son of Hollywood legend Martin Sheen. He himself is known for films such as “Your Way”, “Mighty Ducks – Das Superteam” or “Blaze of Glory: Flaming Glory”. But Emilio Estevez nearly sank into quicksand in the Philippines when, as a teenager, he visited his father on the set of the Francis Ford Coppola classic “Apocalypse Now.”
In the “Jennifer Hudson Show” the actor told about this event, which almost cost him his life. Together with Laurence Fishburne, who plays the much too young and inexperienced Tyrone ‘Clean’ Miller in the anti-war film, whom he had only met on the set a few days earlier, he wanted to travel:
“We’ve only known each other for a few days. He said, ‘Hey, there’s a little boat, let’s take it out.’ I said, “Of course.” We were both 14 at the time. So we were on this boat together and when we got too close to the bank I said, ‘Let me jump out, I’ll push us to the bank.’ I jumped out and it was like quicksand. I was about to sink and I saw Fishburne look at me and say, ‘Take my hand!’ and he pulled me back onto the boat. We have been connected ever since.”
Martin Sheen is very grateful to Laurence Fishburne
Martin Sheen, who was on the talk show with his son, revealed that he only found out about the incident that nearly ended decades later in the death of his unwary child – but that didn’t stop him from picking up the phone immediately afterwards and to thank Laurence Fishburn for this act: “I called Mr Fishburne to thank him for saving my son’s life.“
We’ve included the talk show clip for you here:
Incidentally, it is an unlikely coincidence that Fishburne was on the set of the film at all: the actor was actually 14 years old for the role of Tyrone ‘Clean’ Miller, who would be 17 years old according to the script. To get the role, the “John Wick” star simply cheated two years older.