Emilio Estevez recalled how a young Laurence Fishburne saved him from drowning in the ’70s, an act that his father Martin Sheen revealed he only learned about decades later.
In an interview alongside his father on “The Jennifer Hudson Show” on Tuesday, Estevez looked back at the lifesaving encounter, which occurred while he and Fishburne were in the Philippines to shoot the 1979 epic “Apocalypse Now.”
“Well, we had only known each other a couple of days... He says ‘Hey there’s this little boat, let’s go out on it.’ I said ‘Sure.’ We were both 14 at the time,” said Estevez, whose father appeared with Fishburne in the war film.
“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,’” he continued. “I jumped out and it was like quicksand mud.”
“The Mighty Ducks” actor told Hudson he was sinking and then soon saw Fishburne.
“[He was] just looking at me going, ‘Grab my hand.’ And he pulled me back up onto the boat,” Estevez said. “We were bonded ever since.”
Sheen went on to add that he didn’t find out about the ordeal until he read “Along the Way,” a memoir he co-authored with his son in May 2012.
“I didn’t have a clue. And I called Mr. Fishburne to thank him for saving my son’s life,” he said.
You can check out more of Estevez and Sheen’s interview with Hudson below.