Most of us have heard the name George Foreman, but do we really know the story behind it?
That’s a large part of why the new biopic ‘Big George Forman’ is making its way to the big screen this week, and it’s also a motivation for why its star—Camden native Khris Davis, signed on with the project.
“Before getting this role I didn’t know much about him except for the fact that he lost [to] Ali. And I had a George Foreman Grill in college—he was the grill guy, and he did the Meineke commercials,” says Davis. “So essentially, everything that I learned about Mr. Foreman doing this film was new to me. I had no idea about his life in Houston. I had no idea really about his Olympic victory getting the gold or how he got there. I had no idea about his fight history as a champion… I think most people don’t unless you were there.”
Through the script, Davis learned more about Foreman’s life, especially since the story spans over multiple decades of the boxer’s time.
“When you read each part of his life and how nuanced it is—I mean, you just wanna sink your teeth into that,” continues Davis. “That alone, as an actor, you’re like, man, that’s a lot of ground to cover because a lot happens in just 10 years of our lives.”
‘Big George Foreman’ covers at least 40. From his time making it out the Fifth Ward in Houston, which many would think in itself is impossible, to making it all the way to the Olympics in his first year of boxing, to then leaving the sport, making a huge comeback, and eventually becoming the oldest heavyweight champion of the world. And all along the way he found out a lot more about himself and more so, how he could change.
“The number one [thing I learned] about George was his big heart and his kindness. I think that was easy to overlook, especially in his early career when he had the persona of being the destroyer in the ring and he sold that. And you gotta sell the fights, right? People assumed that he was just a brooding force and menacing all the time,” Davis continues. “But when I watched the videos of him speaking, I saw him smiling a lot and I saw his eyes always looking for a connection with the people he was talking to, and how generous he was and how he made space for everyone around him.”
Davis broke down Foreman’s life by relationships, especially since it covers so many of them over long periods of times. And on top of doing his research— which included watching interviews, working on the dialect, and reading his autobiographies—he had to also go through a drastic weight gain to show time passing.
“In the beginning [it was about] getting into fight shape which was intense. It was hard and it was incredible, but it was good because it gave me some of the groundwork I needed to just stay in the moment when we were filming, because we filmed pretty fast,” he explained.
When it was time to gain the weight, filming took six weeks off and Davis ate 7,000 calories a day to ultimately gain 50 pounds in five weeks. The actor weighed in at 225 in the beginning and got up to 282, and all on a pescatarian diet with no sugar and no dairy.
“There was a lot of salmon, and on days where I could no longer taste the salmon, I switched it up to five sides of Branzino with a pound of pasta,” says Davis.
Packing on the weight took the time to unpack more relationships in the film as well, and as the actor saw it, this proved to show Foreman’s story of growth in tangible ways that could come across on screen.
“[I] broke the script down, moment to moment, relationship to relationship. I wanted it to be second nature—all the relationships, where I was going, what I was doing, who I was speaking to, and how our story connected to his actual story. I did that for almost a year up until the day we started filming… And even during, I was still doing research.”
Davis continued: “We unpack his relationship with his mother (Sonja Sohn), and his father—his father wasn’t in his life, but that is the type of relationship that is a part of one’s development and we see how it has affected him. His relationship with his sister Gloria (K Steele) was also very interesting to me, and definitely his relationship with Doc Broadus (Forest Whitaker), his trainer, who in a sense was like his father.”
‘Big George Foreman’ is directed by George Tillman Jr., who believed that the boxer’s comeback was only possible through the greater miracle of his transformation.
“He actually was on this job two years before I even showed up. So he started and was one of the writers, and when I showed up, we talked about it. We brainstormed some ideas back and forth, and the longer we worked together, by the time we started filming, he and I were just in a complete collaboration,” says Davis. “Overall I wanted to not just do Mr. Foreman’s story justice—because I wasn’t budging on that, no matter what the idea was—but even though we were collaborating, this really is like his baby too. So I wanted to make sure that his work, his ideas and his vision were coming to life and that was my job.”
‘Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World’ shows the story of the boxer, entrepreneur and the family man that makes up Big George. But, it also shows the freedom it can bring in transforming the way you think about life.
“I think this film is about second chances, but I also hope that people take away some permission to be yourself. In this life, this one life that you’re given to experience, remember at this moment right now that you don’t have time to waste trying to please everybody,” finishes Davis. “When you’re not being true to yourself, you genuinely love anyone else but yourself. And if you are being true to yourself and you’re loving yourself right, then you’re making a space to love others the right way.”
Catch ‘Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World‘ in theaters April 28.
