Laurence Fishburne has had some strange turns in his career. He got his start by lying about his age so he could appear in Apocalypse Now, made a surprise turn into TV acting before it was cool for Hollywood types to do so with a three-year stint on CSI, and has been weirdly supportive of his daughter's burgeoning porno career. He's been around a fair bit has Larry, but he'll almost certainly be best remembered as Morpheus, the gap-toothed smart guy from The Matrix who pulls Keanu Reeves out of his deadbeat existence and into an exciting new life as a guy who wears a lot of leather and runs up walls for fun. That was the plot of The Matrix, right? Morpheus was essentially a Winston Wolfe-style character upgraded to the main cast, the calm, collected guiding example for Neo to get to grips with reality being a computer simulation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5TdqIc21so He's charismatic, his voice commands respect, and you can see how anybody would be convinced to down a funny-coloured pill if Laurence Fishburne told you to. He's just so...magnetic. Which are clearly the sort of qualities Kia were looking for when they wanted a spokesperson for their new car model, since they aired an advert during this year's Super Bowl which saw Fishburne reprising his role as Morpheus, this time appearing a some rich couple's valet who's a little obsessed with their fancy car, rather than desperately seeking out the chosen one who will save humanity from an eternity as prisoners of a race of evil machines. We're not saying that getting people to buy cars is any less noble a mission, but...yeah, that's exactly what we're saying. And then he sings a song for some reason.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
