Sixteen years after winning an Academy Award for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the movie Ray, Jamie Foxx is gearing up to star in a biopic about Mike Tyson. And early today, the actor shared a series of photos to Instagram, depicting how he’s transformed his body for the role:
Setting aside the fact that these photos seem to have been taken by a microwave, Foxx seems to have mastered Kid Dynamite’s overpowering frame. According to a recent interview with Mark Birnbaum, Foxx’s regimen is deceptively simple: every other day, he performs 60 pull-ups, 60 dips, and 100 push-ups. The training goal, apparently, is to reach 225 lbs in time for shooting, and to look 250 on the screen. Foxx is also counting on an assist from old and new schools of movie magic. He said to Birnbaum: “I ain’t got no calf muscles so we’re gonna have to get some prosthetics for that.” And way back in 2015, he told New York radio station Hot 97 that to convincingly play “young Mike” they’d have to use de-aging technology that “Martin Scorsese was perfecting” — which came to notoriety in 2019 with the release of The Irishman.
Foxx is legitimately a great fit for this role. With the added mass, he’ll have the figure down pat (Tyson is only an inch taller), but most importantly, he can do the voice.
In case this doesn’t work out, though, the best candidate to play Mike Tyson is probably just Mike Tyson. Iron Mike is only one year older than Jamie Foxx, he has an extensive IMDB page, and most importantly, he’s getting back into fighting shape. Just last month, a video went viral of the the former heavyweight champion throwing absolute haymakers.
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