Laurence Fishburne Reflects on the Legacy of His Man of Steel Role

It’s been more than a decade since Laurence Fishburne played Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, but it’s a role that the actor looks back fondly — especially for how it changed perception of Perry White. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter (via Screen Rant), Fishburne reflected on the film, calling it “a wonderful movie” and then noted the legacy it’s left of the character Perry White being portrayed by Black actors, when the character was originally envisioned as white in the comics.

“That was beautiful,” Fishburne said. “Man of Steel is a wonderful movie. If I’ve been influential in any way in terms of that whole nontraditional casting thing, I love it. That’s great.”

Fishburne brought Perry White to life on the big screen in both Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and made a major mark on the character. In 2013, Fishburne said that he modeled his take on the character on late CBS correspondent Ed Bradley. While Fishburne is not reprising the role for James Gunn’s DC Universe film Superman, another Black actor is stepping into the newsman’s shoes — Suits alum Wendell Pierce.

“I’m looking forward to this,” Pierce said earlier this year. “I never grew up reading comics, so I relied on my friends to tell me about it. I’m excited about this, you know.”

Fishburne Is Currently Starring in Slingshot

While Fishburne’s days as Perry White are behind him, the actor is currently starring in the film Slingshot with Casey Affleck. The film opened in theaters on August 30th. Fishburne recently spoke with ComicBook about what appealed to him about the movie, revealing that he wasn’t inspired by his Event Horizon character, but by the mystery of Slingshot.

“Not so much, because that was a very long time ago,” Fishburne said. “But this one for me the appeal was I the mystery of it the sort of unknown quality of it with his mission that these men are on to slingshot around a planet to pick up more gravity so they could travel further out into space and whether or not any of that is going to work.”

“Casey Affleck’s character being among a number of people who are vying to get a position on the ship, to get a seat on the ship. Because it goes back and forth between this process of being vetted for the mission, and then of course the reveal at the end,” he continued. “Which I just thought was really fabulous and amazing. Something so surprising comes out of it. I was really satisfied with the way we pulled it off.”

What Do We know About James Gunn’s Superman?

Per DC Studios, Superman tells the story of Superman’s journey to reconcile his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing as Clark Kent of Smallville, Kansas. He is the embodiment of truth, justice and a better tomorrow, guided by human kindness in a world that sees kindness as old-fashioned. 

In addition to Pierce as Perry White, Superman will also star David Corenswet as Clark Kent / Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, Terence Rosemore as Otis, María Gabriela de Faría as Angela Spica / The Engineer, Isabela Merced as Kendra Saunders / Hawkgirl, Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, Edi Gathegi as Michael Holt / Mr. Terrific, and Anthony Carrigan as Rex Mason / Metamorpho.