Jamie Foxx confirmed on Instagram that he will be playing Mike Tyson in a biopic. And he looks the part. (Check out Foxx’s post on Instagram below.)
Foxx, who won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Ray Charles in 2005, said during an Instagram Live conversation with producer Mark Birnbaum that the film is “a definitive yes.”
Casting for the film reportedly was announced in 2014 but it evidently stalled after that.
“Doing biographies is a tough thing,” he said. “Sometimes it takes 20 years to get them done, but we officially got the real ball rolling.
“I met Mike Tyson in the weirdest way, I was on stage doing stand-up years ago [aged 22]. I get to my Mike Tyson joke and nobody claps, nobody laughs. You know why? Because Mike Tyson was watching.
“So I started hanging out with Mike Tyson so I got to see Mike in two different ways, two different lives.
“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.
“That’s the person we want to show.”
Foxx, 52, went on: “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.”
Mike Tyson, 53, has been in the news recently because of his plans to take part in exhibitions.