'Big George Foreman' Star Khris Davis Talks 'Intense' Experience Playing Boxing Legend (Exclusive)

Khris Davis is playing the biggest role in his young career. The actor appeared in films such as Detroit and Judas and the Black Messiah, but movie fans are about to see him as boxing legend George Foreman in the upcoming biopic Big George Foreman. PopCulture.com spoke exclusively to Davis, who opened up about his experience playing Foreman on the big screen. 

"Oh man, it was intense," Davis exclusively told PopCulture. "There's a lot of pressure there. There's a lot of pressure there. And not only a boxing legend, a boxing legend who had never been portrayed before. So there was nothing, no reference to really draw from, aside from the footage of him doing interviews and watching his fights and things like that. So I felt the pressure initially, but the pressure evolved into responsibility. So I knew I had a responsibility to do the best that I possibly could do, and that's all I really wanted to do was my absolute best."

One challenge Davis had to encounter was gaining 50 pounds to look like the older Foreman who returned to the ring after taking 10 years off. At that time (1987) Foreman was 38 years old and did not look like the boxer that took on the likes of Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. 

"When I think about it, I had gone through so many physical challenges before just doing the first half of the film, getting into fight shape, switching my body weight per week based off of what we were filming that week," Davis said. "So my body was already going through a lot of rigorous changes. So when I stepped into gaining the weight, I was prepared for some pain. I was prepared for a lot of drastic changes. My body had changed tremendously to get in shape in the first place. But what I will say is eating 7,000 calories a day is nothing to sneeze at. And gaining 50 pounds in five weeks is nothing to sneeze at."

Davis continued: "I went from 225 to 275 in five weeks, and it was hard. I was seeing myself change and it started to make me feel sad and depressed and confused. But then I went into the mirror and I shaved all my hair off to a baldy, and I shaved my beard off and I took my shirt off and I was like, 'Oh, there you are, there it is.' Yeah. So I felt much better and I felt like we were on the right track. So me doing that and seeing myself that way, seeing my body transform into Mr. Foreman because of all the calories I was eating, gave me hope and faith that I was on the right track."

Despite making drastic changes to his body, Davis enjoyed the experience of playing a boxing Hall of Famer. "The best thing about portraying George Foreman was having the privilege of being able to uplift and uphold part of his legacy," Davis explained. And even while filming, I think we all kind of had to snap out of it and be like, man, he is really big. He's important when you think about it. So having the opportunity to be the individual who gets to tell his story on this magnitude for the first time, that's it. That's it right there. And if that's all I have to walk away from all this with, I feel blessed for it." 

Big George Foreman will premiere in theatres on April 28.