SINGAPORE – One of the most intimate things you can do with someone is to box with them. Or rather, put up a portrayal of boxing for the camera, says American actor Jonathan Majors.
Each fighter has to be locked onto the other’s rhythm, says Majors, who appears as Damian Anderson in Creed III, the third movie to feature the boxer of the film’s title, played by Michael B. Jordan.
Majors adds: “The exhale. The inhale. How fast he moves, the speed of his reactions. It’s jazz, it’s tap dancing and Martha Graham-ing. It’s so intimate.”
The 33-year-old was speaking to The Straits Times at an online interview.
In Creed III, which opens in cinemas here on Thursday, Damian was a former best friend and mentor to the young Adonis Creed. After a long separation, they meet in the present day. Only now as opponents because Damian has proven that he has what it takes to dethrone Creed as champion. The ninth film in the Rocky series is the first to not feature Sylvester Stallone’s fighter-turned-trainer Rocky Balboa.
The difference between a good boxing film and a great one is whether there is a connection between the two men. It is something he and Jordan had while they boxed, Majors says.
“Even if you aren’t in physical contact, you are in emotional contact. And there is a camera there – they are grabbing your face, grabbing your soul, the sweat and the spit and the blood,” he says
Majors is breaking into the mainstream after years of appearing in critically acclaimed shows, such as war drama Da 5 Bloods (2020) and horror series Lovecraft Country (2020). Most recently, he can be seen in Marvel superhero film Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania (2023), in which he plays the dimension-jumping villain Kang The Conqueror. He also played a “variant” of Kang – the same person, but from another universe – in Disney+ series Loki (2021 to present).
Majors says he sees similarities between Kang and Damian. Both are there to throw a veil of mystery over the story and create obstacles for the hero. In the Loki series, He Who Remains was a chirpy and cheeky counterpoint to the grimmer Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Loki variant, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino).
Majors’ character was out to play mind games.
“I had to out-Loki Loki and out-Sylvie Sylvie to complete my own objectives as He Who Remains. So, I played a mischievous character, using a lot of language, having a lot of fun, to give them an obstacle they can overcome so they can become heroic,” he says.
Hiddleston and Martino were incredible as scene partners in that they played along with the different “vibrations” that could be gleaned from the script, he says.
The Ant-Man, Loki and Creed franchises have pushed him up the Hollywood hierarchy, but Majors says he is happy to be working, especially since he has found that major studios like Disney give actors a great deal of creative freedom.
The actor has talked about his difficult childhood in other interviews. His father, a military man, abandoned his family for 17 years. Despite growing up in neighbourhoods where gangsters and drug dealers prowled the streets – and also getting himself arrested for petty offences – he entered the Yale School of Drama, graduating in 2016.
Asked what his young self would say to the Majors of today, he responded with a quote from former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali.
“‘Rumble, young man, rumble,’ he said that at his fight camp. That phrase reminds me to talk, to listen and to do that regardless of whether I am working in an independent film or a blockbuster.”
Creed III opens on Thursday.
