Yahoo News How Khris Davis transformed his body — twice — to play George Foreman
George Tillman Jr. "didn't get a lot of sleep," as he tells EW, trying to get one specific scene right in his latest movie, Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World.
"What I labored over the most is definitely the George Foreman-Muhamman Ali fight in Zaire," the director recalls of the match dubbed the Rumble in the Jungle. "We shot and did everything specifically to match the fight. And then from a philosophical standpoint, we wanted to really make sure we got that eight-round fight, the three-punch combination. So we did that 45 times; Khris got hit 45 times — the three-punch combination, George's turn to hit the canvas, and Ali turning around. Forty-five times. We knew we were going to fight and hit real boxers. We knew we were doing real punches in the film, but that was just the most famous punch of all time."
That Khris is Khris Davis. Known for roles on Atlanta, and in Judas and the Black Messiah and Space Jam: A New Legacy, the actor transformed his body to play George Foreman at different stages of his life — not only during his prime boxing days, but also younger while he trained with the Job Corps, and later in life as a minister, when the muscle had largely converted to fat and he was in very different physical shape...and then decided to get back in the ring.
Alan Markfield/Sony Pictures Khris Davis as George Foreman and Sullivan Jones as Muhammad Ali in 'Big George Foreman'
Davis admits he wondered if he could or even should take on the role.
"When you're playing an icon who is so celebrated and recognized through so many different eras, decades of life and generations, you have to wonder if you can do it," he says, crediting his theater work with giving him skills in physical character work. "I was able to understand how to, in some way, shrink myself enough — 'cause I can't become that much smaller, but I can shrink myself enough to make a difference — at least visually when it comes to playing the heavyweight champ, and then being the heavy heavyweight champ."
Since Tillman and the producers decided to use the same actor across the decades, they stopped production so that Davis could gain weight to play an older Foreman, akin to what Robert De Niro told Tillman he did for Raging Bull while they were making 2000's Men of Honor together.
"He went to Italy to eat and he came back as a bigger guy," Tillman says of De Niro's approach, adding that they had only factored in a couple weeks for Davis to pack on the pounds. The solution? Start post-production work on what had already been filmed in order to give Davis more time. "The first time I saw him six week later he had the ball head, he had the big belly out, and I couldn't believe the transformation.... He stuck to the plan, building up the calories each day and getting ready for the second part."
Below, Davis explains that plan and what it took to physically transform into George Foreman.
Pre-filming training
"I had a little extra weight on from sitting around the house," Davis says with a laugh, describing his physical state when he landed the role during the pandemic. "My conditioning was low because I couldn't go to the gym. It was wintertime in New York. So I really couldn't start exercising until seven weeks out."
Complicating matters? "Here's a bit of information that I haven't told anyone: I actually had a hernia surgery before we started filming. So that required some recovery. I was counting the weeks to the last day I could possibly sit around the house."
Davis was finally able to start jogging and running, but then it was time to get serious: "Nothing compared to boxing training. We got into the gym and from the start, we were in there for five to six hours.... You feel like your eyes are gonna fall out, you can barely breathe, your lungs are burning. We started off that way, getting the heavybag work in. Speed bag, jump rope, things like that."
Then he was off to New Orleans to start sparring with some of the real boxers. But not long after arriving, Hurricane Ida made landfall in Aug. 2021. "It tore the roof off the production office, rained on everything. So we had to start from scratch," Davis says. "That put us another three-and-a-half months behind."
But it gave Davis three-and-a-half months more to train. "I got into really great shape, and it was good because you're filming fight scenes for 12 or 14 hours a day and throwing punches that long is difficult," he says, adding with a laugh, "I was able to get really good. Real strong body, was looking real nice."
From heavyweight champ Foreman to minister Foreman
With photography complete on various scenes, including the Foreman-Ali fight, a.k.a. the Rumble in the Jungle, it was time for Davis to prepare his body for older George Foreman.
"One of the producers calls me and he says, 'What's your weight?' I said, 'Man, it's been two days. What do you expect me to weigh in two days?,' Davis recalls. "We talked to a nutritionist [who] gave me a program for 4,000 calories a day when I was just at home, 5,000 calories a day when I was on set filming, and 6,000 calories a day when I was doing boxing training. But I was never gonna make that weight by using that program at all."
So Davis increased his intake to a staggering 7,000-calorie per day. At the end of the first week, a producer called again to explain that production was considering putting him in a fat suit. "When I tell you how disappointed I was to hear that, how hurt I was to hear that — because all of the work that I had done, all the sacrifices that I had made in that first half of that film — it felt like they didn't trust me still to do the job. And I couldn't believe it."
But he made a deal with producers: If, five weeks later, he wasn't where they needed him to be, he'd wear a fat suit. It ended up not being necessary. "I gained 50 pounds in five weeks," Davis recalls, proudly. "I went from 225 to 275 in five weeks. The heaviest I got was 282."
And he didn't do it the way one might expect, chugging milkshakes and devouring cake and donuts. Davis is a pescatarian — no beef, turkey, chicken, etc., but fish was absolutely on the menu. "[My diet] essentially consisted of a lot of salmon, 'cause it's high in fat," he says, explaining that he also had to be able to lose the weight quickly for his next role, Death of a Salesman's Biff on Broadway (that production wrapped in January). "I ate a lot of pasta — not too much 'cause I didn't want my blood sugar to go crazy. I really relied on legumes and root vegetables a lot. Obviously rice was up there. And I drank a lot of very dense protein shakes."
Eating hourly for some 15 hours a day, Davis says "it got so difficult that I couldn't swallow food anymore. So I would be sitting there like a chipmunk cheeks full of food."
Big George Foreman is in theaters now.
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