Someone tells you that you're up for the part of George Foreman. What goes through your head?
Oh my God, like, "How am I going to do this? Where do I start?" It's such a miraculous story to tell — ["miraculous story" is] in the title because it's true. There's such a huge responsibility to telling a story about such an icon like Mr. Foreman — where do you start? You got to start eating the elephant one bite at a time. I treated it essentially the way I would a script when I'm on stage when I'm doing theater. You break it down moment [by] moment; you find out where the arc is; you take your time.
Luckily, I had the time to do it. We got pushed back several times because of COVID, and there was a hurricane that happened, so we faced a lot of adversity during this film. Every time that happened, I took it as an opportunity for me to dig deeper and deeper and deeper into the character. Thank God that we did have that time.
Is it challenging to play someone who's still here, and you know he's going to watch you, as opposed to playing someone from history who isn't around anymore?
I don't know. I was so much more concerned about authenticating the work than needing to be liked by Mr. Foreman in the moment. Sure, I wanted him to be proud. Sure, I wanted him to feel like his story was being taken care of. But the only way he could feel that his story was being taken care of [was] if I was locked in and treating it with care. I couldn't do that if I was distracted and unfocused. By being focused on the work, by making the work my primary objective, I think I was able to do that.
