‘Big George Foreman’ Star Forest Whitaker on How Playing Doc Brodaus Was ‘Interesting Territory’ (Exclusive)

George Foreman’s boxing career was successful because of the guidance of Doc Broadus. The mentor and trainer of Foreman is featured in the film Big George Foreman, and the role is played by acting legend Forest Whitaker. PopCulture.com spoke exclusively to Whitaker who explained why he wanted to play an iconic figure in the boxing world. 

“I think the character gets to explore what it means to help mentor somebody and be a champion, and when his own dreams are interfering, how to get them out, how to move them out of the way,” Whiteaker exclusively told PopCulture. “I think that was interesting territory for me to play. I played a boxing coach before. This one was a different journey.”

In Big George Foreman, Broadus teaches Foreman how to box and helps him become one of the all-time great competitors. But the film also takes a look at Foreman’s upbringing which stood out to Whitaker. “Honestly, I didn’t realize that,” Whitaker stated. “I knew he was coming from poor beginnings, but I didn’t realize how impoverished his family was. I think that I didn’t realize that he had had this revelatory moment, near-death experience. I didn’t know. I learned that from the film, and that experience helped him move into his spiritual life as a preacher, and I didn’t know that.”

With Broadus working with Foreman throughout his career, Whitaker worked closely with Khris Davis who plays Foreman in the film. The Academy Award winner was impressed by the work Davis put in to transform his body. “When I first came in, he’d already been in character, and he was really committed, and you could tell by his speech, by his movement, he was carrying that with him,” Whitaker said. “When he went away to get… Because he had spent, I guess, a year or so just learning how to box. You could tell it by watching him in the ring when he was fighting with other people. He looked like a real fighter. Then later, you see him commit to gaining all that weight, which is so much that it almost looks like it’s a prosthetic, but it’s not. It’s real. That takes great commitment.” Fans can see Whitaker in Big George Foreman starting on April 28.