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OTTAWA - He faced the Vietnam War in Apocalypse Now, racism in Boyz 'N The Hood and technological terrors in The Matrix, but there's one foe that Laurence Fishburne still hasn't licked.
"I still have trouble spelling. Sometimes I can't even spell my own name," Fishburne joked moments before the screening of the Canadian premiere of his latest flick, Akeelah and the Bee, at the Canadian Museum of Civilization last night.
Fishburne and Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined 28 Canadian spelling bee finalists, who are in Ottawa to compete in the CanWest CanSpell National Spelling Bee finals for a $10,000 scholarship and the chance to outspell at the Scribbs American Finals in Washington, D.C., in May.
But it was Fishburne and co-star Keke Palmer's starpower that the politicians and whiz kids were there for. They added even more glamour to a phenomenon that has been sweeping Hollywood since the Oscar-nominated 2003 documentary Spellbound and 2005's feature film, Bee Season. So the timing for Fishburne, who also co-produced Akeelah and the Bee, couldn't be better.
Written and directed by Doug Atchison, the film took Fishburne and his partners six years to complete. Not surprisingly, Fishburne described the project as "a labour of love. It's a wonderful movie for kids and the whole family."
Akeelah and the Bee, which is set for national release on April 28, is the story of a competitive 11-year-old girl, Akeelah, played by Palmer, who enters spelling contests with the help of Fishburne's character, Dr. Larabee, despite protests from Akeelah's doting mother (Angela Bassett).
"The thing with kids is that you only get one chance to do it right," Fishburne said. "It's really important to share their gifts while they're discovering them. That's why spelling bees are such a compelling story. They stimulate them intellectually, they awaken their competitive spirit, but it's fun. There's something fun about words."
Of course, the dapper 44-year-old actor has another big-screen monster in the closet, Mission Impossible 3, starring Tom Cruise.
On that, he would only say that the movie, directed by Lost and Alias' J.J. Abrams, is "really dark and different from the other two Mission Impossible movies."
Fishburne was just as mysterious when asked about his co-star, Cruise, and the mega-star's pregnant partner, Katie Holmes. "They're wonderful people. I don't know much that goes on between them, but I'm happy for them and hope the baby is healthy."
Fishburne made his cinematic debut in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, and later won raves as the father in John Singleton's 1991 race-relations drama, Boyz n The Hood.
He won a Tony Award in 1992 for best actor in Two Trains Running, and in 1995, starred in the cinematic update of Shakespeare's Othello.