Jonathan Majors’ primary inspiration for his rancorous Creed III character was Nipsey Hussle.
In an interview with Looper’s sister site SlashFilm, the acclaimed thespian spoke about getting into the proper headspace to portray Damian “Diamond Dame” Anderson. A part of his routine included the actor looking to Hussle and Tupac Shakur’s discographies for a point of reference.
One of the reasons the star turned to the late icons, Majors explained, was based on the geographical similarities shared between his boxing movie and the rappers.
“I listened to a lot of Tupac, Nipsey Hussle,” he said to the outlet. “All of Nipsey’s stuff was really helpful. They’re from the same area, Dame and him, so that’s cool. There’s also dialect work, and so he’s rapping in his LA sound. The things [Hussle] is talking about are things that resonate with the world that Dame comes from, so that was very helpful.”
“There’s other songs that come from your subconscious that touch you in a way that can align you,” he continued. “You write that song next to the top of the page or whatever, and there’s playlist upon playlist upon playlist. Those can curate it into ‘This is that scene’ or ‘This is that moment.’”
Michael B. Jordan’s Creed III recently made history at the box office, earning $58.7 million in its opening weekend in North America.
The cinematic experience was also a knockout overseas, notching $41.8 million, which marks the best worldwide opening for a movie in the Creed trilogy.
According to Variety, overseas ticket sales are “pacing 109% ahead of 2015’s Creed and 25% ahead of 2018’s Creed II.” With these figures, the latest in the Rocky franchise has overexceeded studio expectations of an estimated $30 million.
