Sylvester Stallone is getting a lot of awards attention for his performance in Creed, but his co-star Michael B. Jordan also deserves recognition for all he went through filming the movie. Like, for example, taking a punch to the face from British pro boxer Tony Bellew on set:
That KO wasn’t an accident, either, as Jordan explained on The Bill Simmons Podcast last month. The script specifically required that Jordan’s character get hit in the face, and director Ryan Coogler wanted to do the shot in slow motion. So, as Jordan explains, “[In slow motion] you can see the misses, the space between the punches. So, all of a sudden, you just hear this snickering from the corner, and everybody’s like ‘What?’ And Sly’s like, ‘Man you gotta take it.’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ He’s like, ‘No, you gotta take a real punch.’” Where’s Chris Tucker when you need him?
[h/t Men’s Fitness]