Foxx got huge for Mike Tyson role. Photo / Supplied
Foxx got huge for Mike Tyson role. Photo / Supplied
Mike Tyson, the former "Baddest Man on the Planet", is coming to a big screen near you.
A biopic on the heavyweight superstar is in the works with Hollywood star Jamie Foxx confirming the reports.
Foxx will take on the role of the boxing destroyer who still holds the recordas the youngest ever heavyweight champion after claiming the title at 20.
Foxx got huge for Mike Tyson role. Photo / Supplied
In an Instagram Live series "Catching Up with Mark Birnbaum," Foxx, 52, spoke about taking on the role and showed off the insane body transformation he had undergone in preparation.
"It's a definitive yes," Foxx said. "Doing biographies is a tough thing. Sometimes it takes 20 years to get them done, but we officially got the real ball rolling."
Foxx undertook a stringent gym routine to build out his frame for the unique role of playing Tyson, an undersized heavyweight boxer who obliterated opponents with his unbelievable power and speed.
"I guarantee you, people will run up on me in the street and ask for an autograph and think that I'm Mike," Foxx said.
To get the insane upper body strength like Tyson had, Foxx hit the gym every other day and would do 60 pull ups, 60 dips and 100 push ups.
"In changing the body, we will be 216 pounds (97kgs) when we shoot and then we'll balloon to 225-230 (102-104) which will look like 250 (113) on screen," Foxx said before showing off his body of work.
Mike Tyson stands in his corner during the fight against Carl Williams in 1989. Photo / Getty Images
Tyson has endured an up and down life. After climbing to the top of the world at his boxing peak, it fell apart and saw him declare bankruptcy.
In recent years he has bounced right back and Foxx is hopeful the biopic will show audiences a new side of Tyson.
"That's the person that we want to show," said Foxx. "We want to show everybody evolves. Everybody comes from a good or bad place and I think when we lay the layers on Mike Tyson in this story, I think everybody from young and old will be able to understand this man's journey and the way we'll place it."
Foxx detailed the story behind his first meeting with Tyson which came when he was doing stand-up comedy.
"I met Mike Tyson in the weirdest way, I was on stage doing stand-up years ago," Foxx recalled, noting he was about 22 years old at the time. "I get to my Mike Tyson joke and nobody claps, nobody laughs. You know why? Because Mike Tyson was watching."
After the audience pleaded with him to do the joke, Foxx gave in and delivered and received a standing ovation from the crowd with Tyson approaching him afterwards to praise him for it.
"So I started hanging out with Mike Tyson so I got to see Mike in two different ways, two different lives," the "Blame It" singer explained. "I saw him at the height of his career and then when things got bad, things got bumpy, I also saw him as well, so what I'm excited about the movie is to show those moments of the different Mike."
Throughout the interview and when discussing the movie and the life of Tyson, Foxx continually slipped into character with his impersonation unbelievably on point.
Listen to the relevant portion of their conversation, which starts at the 53:00 minute mark:
