Stars Khris Davis and Forest Whitaker and director George Tillman Jr talk to RadioTimes.com about the challenges of making the movie.

By Adam Davidson

Published: Friday, 28 April 2023 at 12:00 am

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Boxing legend George Foreman is without question one of the most iconic figures in the sport’s history.

From a gold medal in the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games to the generation-defining Rumble in the Jungle with Muhammad Ali, he came to be widely regarded as one of the hardest hitters of all time in a career that spanned three decades.

It was the task of actor Khris Davis to capture the essence of the larger-than-life figure in the new biopic Big George Foreman – and ahead of the release, the star spoke to RadioTimes.com and other press about the pressures of taking on the role.

Meanwhile, director George Tillman Jr also spoke about the importance of accuracy in the film – read on for everything you need to know.

Big George Foreman true story

Playing George Foreman was an opportunity that Khris Davis took with both hands – but he definitely felt an added pressure due to the legacy of the great boxer.

“Overall it felt like such a huge responsibility,” he explained. “Going into it I didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, I got it under control. I’m going to be able to go in there and knock it out!’ It was day by day thinking about showing up today and we will see where this plane lands. The biggest focus for me was to focus on the work that I’m doing today.

“I didn’t want Mr Foreman to look at it and see this guy who has the responsibility of upholding his legacy just butchered it, or he wasn’t honest or true. I felt a responsibility to be accountable for that truth.”

However, Davis made it clear that his portrayal of the boxing icon was an ‘interpretation, not an impersonation’ and honed in on the elements that made him noticeable and recognisable.

He added: “I can never be Mr Foreman, I don’t live in his body, I live in my own body, so I didn’t want to put that kind of pressure on myself and try to trick the audience into believing that I have transformed into George Foreman. All I can do is an interpretation and the way I approach that interpretation should be honest and it should be as authentic as possible.”

Of course, one of the most important aspects of a biopic is to have an honest depiction of the central subject, and in order to ensure this authenticity director George Tillman Jr included some of the more controversial moments of Foreman’s life, such as the fact that he mugged people as a teenager and his marital infidelities.

Foreman himself served as executive producer on this movie and was equally as keen to keep his story authentic. Talking about what Foreman was like in this process, Tillman Jr said: “He came on the set one time, he trusted us to tell his story.

“We had carte blanche. I think the main thing that he wanted to do was to make sure we show what really happened that night in Puerto Rico, when he fought Jimmy Young, in the locker room and his life changed completely after that.

“Everything before that, the mistakes that he made, was very important because those were the mistakes he made in the first half of his life. What is a true journey if a character doesn’t show his vulnerability? Show his mistakes? I wanted it to be as authentic as possible with the boxing but also with his real life as well and George was OK with that.”

Tillman Jr previously gained critical acclaim for The Hate U Give but also Notorious, the biopic of Christopher Wallace AKA rapper Biggie Smalls, and he explained that making a George Foreman film came with different challenges compared to Notorious.

“The biggest thing for me was the years – Christopher Wallace lived a short time, he was only 24, but George we covered from 1960 to 1994,” he explained. “Successful biopics take a small amount of time and make it short and concise.

“When you make that choice you’ve just got to be ready for how to get all this in a two-hour film, how to maintain enough characterisation that everybody understands and where it doesn’t feel episodic. It was hell in the editing room, I had to cut a lot of stuff down! As a filmmaker, it was very challenging but it was very stimulating as a creative.”

Also joining the cast is Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker, who plays Doc Broadus, the boxer’s longtime trainer who introduced him to the sport.

Whitaker is no stranger to portraying a boxing trainer, having starred in Southpaw alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in 2015 and when asked what excites him about these kinds of roles during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com, he explained: “Usually there’s an arc about somebody evolving.

“The trainers that I’ve played have helped individuals grow and seek opportunities and expand their world. There’s something interesting about that that I’m excited to do.”

Foreman was already a legendary figure in boxing from the first half of his career having dismantled Joe Frazier within two rounds and having a 40-0 record before losing the legendary Rumble in the Jungle showdown against Muhammad Ali.

However, Foreman turned to religion after a shock defeat to Jimmy Young in Puerto Rico and didn’t fight for another 10 years only to do the seemingly impossible by defeating Michael Moorer in 1994 (at the age of 45) to become world heavyweight champion, 17 years after leaving the sport.

Incredibly, Whitaker was actually at the fight in Las Vegas when Foreman won his title back – an experience which he described as “electrifying”.

“There were people from all walks of life from businessmen to pimps to young people, it was like walking into the coliseum when you walked in,” he said. “When you saw them fight you couldn’t predict it, you didn’t know what to think but I’ve watched this man fight since I was a kid. We used to stop and watch those fights if we could and to see this thing unfold in front of you was like part of your history.”

Asked whether we will see the likes of George Foreman again in the sport, Whitaker replied: “I think now with the way that athletes train and the way things are done, you can bet there will be somebody that is older that you wouldn’t think would be able to win.”