Warner Bros.(NEW YORK) — At 28 years old, Michael B. Jordan wasn’t even alive when the film Rocky took the box office by storm nearly four decades ago. But on Monday’s Good Morning America, the actor said he binge-watched the original and the subsequent six films to prepare for his role in Creed, the seventh film in the series.
Jordan plays Adonis Creed, the boxer son of Apollo Creed — the heavyweight boxing champion who was a rival, then friend, of Rocky Balboa in four Rocky films.
Jordan said thanks to his co-star, he didn’t feel any pressure during the production of Creed. “I had Sylvester Stallone in my corner,” said Jordan. “And he literally took the pressure off of me to not compete and not compare with anything that he did, you know, 40 years ago but to, you know, have your own legacy…and kind of do your own thing.”
Even so, that was hard to do in one regard, said Jordan. “Physically I felt the pressure because they did such a great job back in the day, Carl Weathers [who played Apollo Creed] and Sly, they were cut to a tee. So me and my trainer, we really wanted to set the bar pretty high.”
Jordan’s physical training resulted in a sculpted body that earned him a cover on Men’s Fitness magazine. The actor said he was “super proud” of the cover and his physique, and noted that achieving it took an “extreme diet change.” He added: “I stripped down my diet completely. Grilled chicken, brown rice, broccoli and a lot of water. I worked out two to two three times a day, six days a week. And…if you do that consistently for about 10 months your body will change.”
Back on screen, Jordan said Stallone was essential in helping him play the role. “He knows movie boxing better than anybody else,” Jordan said of Stallone. “So if you have to sell a punch or telegraph this or telegraph that. So he really connected the dots between real boxing and on-screen boxing for me.”
Creed hits theaters Wednesday.
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