Actor Anthony Mackie Wants To Be Sugar Ray Leonard

The Sugar Ray Leonard memoir book just came out in July, and actor Anthony Mackie is already talking about playing the ex-boxer in a movie about his life. Mackie is the 32-year-old actor who played Tupac in the movie “Notorious.” He also had key roles in other films such as “8 Mile,” and “The Adjustment Bureau.” He has been deemed a bit controversial for asserting that Black Hollywood is “lazy.” While on the set of the movie “Real Steel,” (which comes out October 7th) Sugar Ray was brought in to train Mackie’s co-star, Hugh Jackman.

Mackie said in an interview, afterward, that he was excited about the opportunity to meet Sugar Ray.

“I’m going around the room trying to get someone to introduce me. So he comes up to me and goes ‘Anthony, how’s it going? I enjoyed your work. Good work in the movie, man.’ I’m like ‘Oh shit, Sugar Ray Leonard saw me in a movie!’”

After meeting him and getting to know Sugar Ray a little better, Mackie is now convinced that he wants to play the boxer in a film. Sugar Ray Leonard is a retired boxer. He is considered one of the best boxers of all times, and has won world titles in 5 different weight divisions. He fought Floyd Mayweather Sr. in 1978 and won. We can definitely understand why Mackie would be determined to take on such a role. He explained:

“My goal now is to play Sugar Ray Leonard in a movie, just because hanging with him, I’m like ‘He’s the coolest dude in the world.’ I heard his memoirs just came out so I know what I’m doing tomorrow! I’ll look into that. He was such an amazing boxer. Every fight he went into he had a specific purpose going in and it was more of a mental fight than a physical fight for him. He was never a huge guy. He literally held all his punches until the last 10 seconds of every round and just released them in a fury.”

Sugar Ray was obviously a legendary figure. Do you think Mackie could pull off the role?

Source: WENN

-@Kami2Kute