Pulling no punches
Jonathan Majors shares inspiration behind 'Creed III' character
With a pair of blockbusters and a Sundanceendorsed physically transformative character study, Jonathan Majors is having, well, a major, shapeshifting year.
Majors is pivotal to this week’s “Creed III” where he faces off against Adonis Creed, Michael B. Jordan’s boxing heavyweight hero in this 9th installment in the Rocky series. He’s a mesmerizing Damian “Dame” Anderson, Creed’s childhood best friend, who has just been released from prison after 18 years and is eager to settle scores.
Weeks earlier Majors scored laudatory reviews as Kang, a scene-stealing Marvel villain in “AntMan and the Wasp: Quantumania.” And in January his Sundance entry, “Magazine Dreams,” won cheers for his shape-shifting physical presence, a startling bodybuilder’s physique in a dark character study being touted for year-end awards.
“Creed,” while intensely physical with its punishing gladiatorial combat in the boxing ring, was a role that demanded a personal connection for Majors, 33. That meant a name change for the character and insight into his troubled psyche.
“The most ancient quality that was put in was this aspiration for freedom,” Majors said during a virtual press conference. “Not just physical freedom but mental freedom. And that never changed. That never shifted. That was the thing where I went, ‘That makes sense to me.’ Mike saw it. It’s the most universal quality in the piece.
“Second to that was brotherhood — and that brotherhood becomes paramount because that’s connected with our hero and me.”
Originally, the character had a “generic” name. Jordan decided he was Damian. “And whatever his generic last name was, it was up in the air to be changed and I said, ‘How about Anderson? It’s my mother’s last name.’
“I can’t tell you, one of the highlights of the experience was when Mike said yes to that.”
As for inspiration, Majors didn’t have to look far. “In a nutshell, first and foremost it was my stepfather. The idea of freedom? My stepdad was locked up 15 years before he got with my mom and raised me up.
“The ankle monitor situation? I was the kid.
I had to make sure dad got home on time to his crib before the P.O. arrived. I watched that happen.
“My stepdad, Joe (I’ll say his name), he tried out for the Dallas Cowboys — and he almost made it to the Cowboys, he was in the 2nd round. I watched that aspiration, I watched that hustle, I watched that dream he had.
“There’s that big hard shell the young boy had in it, who had the aspirations to be more, to be free. That was a big part of it.”