When it comes to making movies featuring sequences with hand-to-hand combat, hits sometimes get through. Actors and stunt people can practice for months to perfect their choreography and pull punches, but accidental, realistic contact happens occasionally. This is something that rising star Jonathan Majors personally got to understand within the last year making the upcoming Creed III – but rather than be upset about it, he actually views taking real punches during the production as a kind of honor.
Majors discussed this subject during a recent interview with Deadline at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival – an event that saw the premiere of his new Taxi Driver-esque bodybuilding drama Magazine Dreams. When the subject turned to his work on Creed III, he was asked if there were any points while filming scenes in the ring opposite co-star/director Michael B. Jordan where he accidentally took a real punch. Majors explained that it happened more than once, but it was pain that he was willing to take in light of what it was that he was making. In his own words:
I took a couple, I think. I loved it. I’m just so humbled by the opportunity to be a part of the Rocky franchise. Sly, Michael B. Jordan, it’s like, if I’m gonna be in that lineage, even as a baddie, I wanna go for it. So, yeah, [Michael] might caught me a few times. I took some body shots, and gave out a few, too.
Clearly Jonathan Majors was able to take the hits in stride, but one has to wonder if that’s perhaps a reflection of the ridiculous, muscle-bound shape he was in during production – sporting a physique that was defined by a great deal of exercise and consuming 6,000 calories per day (unsurprisingly, his look successfully broke internet). If he had not been in quite as good shape, then he may have felt the force of Michael B. Jordan’s punches in a very different way.
After all, Jordan isn’t exactly a weaking with low muscle mass, as perfectly illustrated by the latest poster for Creed III, which you can check out below. Those are some intense arms and abs.
Picking up after the events of Creed II, the sequel finds Adonis “Donnie” Creed (Michael B. Jordan) living a good and successful life, but everything gets threatened following the return of a childhood friend: Damian “Dame” Anderson (Jonathan Majors). Anderson has been spending time in prison, but following his release he wants the opportunity to show that he still has what it takes to be a boxing legend, and that means tapping gloves with the titular character.
Featuring a stellar cast also starring Tessa Thompson, Wood Harris, Florian Munteanu, Phylicia Rashad, and more, Creed III will be in theaters everywhere on March 3. You can learn about all of the other films that are heading to both the big screen and streaming in the 11 months that remain in the year by checking out our 2023 Movie Release Calendar.