“I couldn’t feel my arms”

Michael B. Jordan is hardly an old man. He’s only 36. But he certainly noticed a difference when it came to playing a third round in the ring with this week’s boxer Adonis Creed Creed III.

“It’s a commitment,” Jordan says in a new interview with Yahoo Entertainment. “And it’s not easy. The older you get, the more difficult it becomes. But I love movement. I love exercising and staying in shape. But walking around like that [in Creed shape] is really hard to do.”

Jordan loved working off the extra muscle, especially when it came to finishing the film or, as he puts it, “sitting in this dark room and eating snacks.”

The series had some strong filmmakers (Ryan Coogler directed 2015 Believewhile Steven Caple Jr. took over for Creed II) behind in two installments. Now Jordan is making his directorial debut Creed III — so all the time in the cut bay and snacking on dried mangoes.

In Creed III, Adonis is retiring with a 27-1 record to spend more time with his wife and daughter (Tessa Thompson and newcomer Mila Davis-Kent) and to work on training aspiring fighters. When Dame Anderson (Jonathan Majors) – a childhood friend of Adonis’s from her foster age who has spent the last 18 years behind bars – emerges and runs for the title, circumstances push Adonis back into the ring. (The Threequel is the first film in the Rocky/Creed verse not involving Sylvester Stallone.)

The Red Hot Majors (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantuamaniaa likely Oscar contender for the Sundance sensation Magazine Dreams) gives the film some serious dramatic weight – and arguably its most compelling, complicated rivalry yet, not to mention some deeply tense boxing scenes.

“There were days when I didn’t feel my arms,” ​​says Majors of the physical strain of production. “I shot all of my fight scenes back-to-back. That means I just fought for four and a half weeks. And towards the end…I couldn’t feel my elbows anymore. You live in a state of tiredness, you know? But you just get up and go.”

The story goes on

The war stories and battle scars from the original Rocky Shows are pretty legendary, including a case where Stallone had to be hospitalized after being shot in the chest by Dolph Lundgren.

Jordan says he is mostly avoided injuries by three Believe movies.

“It got me thinking,” he admits. “I tore up some shit. You get tired, exhausted. It was a lot on all of us. But you know what to expect. You know what’s gonna happen. Eventually your body will break down, you know what I mean? Since you push it to the max every day. But you’re just trying to recover and keep pushing it.

Unlike her work as Valkyrie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thompson avoids the action in Believe Films as recording artist Bianca Taylor, who has largely retired from performing in Part 3 due to her partial hearing loss.

“I feel like these movies are fundamentally about family and relationships,” says Thompson. The setting is boxing, but I’m not sure if the movies are really about boxing. I think it’s also about those moments when you have to fight for something or fight your way through something. And I feel like we as humans basically understand what that is. And I think that was true for everyone Rocky Films that preceded it and certainly in our franchise. I think that’s what the movies are about.”

Thompson says she’s always made it a point to pay homage through her performances to Talia Shire, the original series’ First Lady, as Rocky Balboa’s now-deceased wife, Adrian.

It’s also easy to see Jordan honoring another late Rocky character — his onscreen father, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers): Through his mustache, which grows a little thicker with each episode.

“To be fair, I couldn’t even get that for the first movie,” Jordan laughs, pointing at his facial hair. “So I’m still coming in strong. Danger.”

Creed III play now

Watch the trailer: