Emilio Estevez Said Laurence Fishburne Saved Him From Quicksand While Shooting ‘Apocalypse Now’

Actor Emilio Estevez said this week that Laurence Fishburne saved his life when he fell into quicksand in the Philippines.

Estevez was just a kid at the time, accompanying his father, Martin Sheen, on the set of the 1979 action film, “Apocalypse Now.” The 60-year-old actor said he only met Fishburne a “couple of days” before the incident occurred. 

“He says, ‘Hey there’s this little boat, let’s go out on it.’ I said, ‘Sure.’ We were both 14 at the time,” Estevez said of Fishburne, who was playing the role of Sheen’s squad mate Tyrone Miller. 

“So we were out on this boat together, and we started getting too close to the shore and I said, ‘Well, let me jump out, I’ll push us offshore. I jumped out, and it was like quicksand mud.”

“I was just sinking, oh my god, and I just saw Fishburne just looking at me going, ‘Quick grab my hand!’ And he pulled me back up onto the boat, and we were bonded ever since,” Estevez told host Jennifer Hudson.

They also never told the adults until Sheen was writing his memoir “Along The Way: The Journey Of A Father And Son,” published in 2012.

“I called Mr. Fishburne to thank him for saving my son’s life,” Sheen told Hudson.

Fishburne also mentioned the incident in 2020, saying it made the pair “best friends.”

“I saved his life and he saved mine just by virtue of the fact that we were friends because there were no other 15-year-olds around,” Fishburne told Vulture at the time. “Having the company of somebody who was my own age and male and from America was also a lifesaver for me.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP

Estevez is the son of actor Martin Sheen but chose not to use his last name while pursuing a Hollywood career so he could earn roles on his own merit. His brother is actor Charlie Sheen.

Even without the benefits of playing up his nepo baby status, Estevez had success with his acting career. He’s best known for working on films in the ’80s, such as “The Outsiders,” “The Breakfast Club,” “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “Stakeout,” and “Young Guns.”