2/16/2024 0 Comments I got moves usher raymond… There’s a very masculine side that no one ever got to know,” says Usher. “I wanted to show the difference between macho and masculine. Usher also researched what made Leonard tick. ![]() So it’s important to make sure that these types of roles are executed right.” We don’t … celebrate our native religions. “It’s … what he represents to my people,” says the actor. After Jakubowicz moved to Panama for a year and ultimately raised $24 million, Usher was ready.īy playing Leonard, says the actor, he felt he would be helping to preserve the legacy of one of the most iconic black athletes. I only had six.'”Īll that happened before any investors had been lined up for the film. Leonard recalls, “I just said, ‘Hey, man. He boxed - often three times a day - with a coach in Atlanta and checked in weekly with Leonard, sending the fighter shirtless pictures of himself to show off his changing physique. He started letting his hair grow so it would match Leonard’s afro back in the day. He’s wearing rose quartz, but he swaps it out for another crystal whenever he wants a different one.Īfter just a couple of meetings with Jakubowicz, he started working with acting coach Susan Batson, whose clients include Zac Efron, Oprah Winfrey and Nicole Kidman. He’s a big fan of crystals - amethyst, labradorite, tiger’s eye. On a visit to Beverly Hills to promote “Hands of Stone,” Usher, 37, is dressed in all black and wearing a chain mail satchel, made by his wife to hold his crystals. I think this film begins a new conversation ….” ![]() “At the time, I … was not in the position to make those decisions,” says Usher, who is now managed by his wife, Grace Miguel. For years, while his mother, Jonetta Patton, was managing his career, he turned down roles that he now wishes he had taken - including Frankie Lymon in “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” (1998) and the Jennifer Hudson character’s manager in “Dreamgirls” (2006). Usher, meanwhile, had been itching to return to acting. For him to do this all of a sudden was fascinating.” “This is something I’ve done for 50 years. He watched the aspiring athlete hit the speed bag and move around the ring. I’m pretty good at that.'”Ī few months later, Leonard visited Usher at his home in Atlanta and was surprised to find a boxing gym in the singer’s basement. “Then I spoke to Usher, and he told me how he really wanted to make me proud and wanted my assistance. “I started laughing and said ‘Wow, Usher?'” Leonard recalls. So Jakubowicz went straight to Leonard to find out how he felt about the possibility of being portrayed by Usher. He’s a guy who has been famous for a decade already.” “But everybody was like, ‘Well, but he could be distracting,'” the filmmaker adds. Though Usher bears a strong resemblance to Leonard in the film - at 5 feet, 7 inches, he lost 15 pounds for the role - it was the musician’s dancing ability that first got filmmakers to consider him. The movie focuses on two key matches - the final one in 1980, which ended when Duran abruptly walked out of the ring after saying “no mas” (“no more”). Usher plays Duran’s primary rival in the late 1970s, Sugar Ray Leonard. If that sounds harsh, consider that most of his costars were ’90s teen pinups like James Van Der Beek, Rachael Leigh Cook and Josh Hartnett.Įarly in this century, when he was just coming to prominence as an R&B star, Usher (born Usher Raymond IV) played supporting roles in several films aimed at the under-18 set - the school DJ in “She’s All That” a football player in “The Faculty,” about a high school filled with alien teachers and an outlaw in “Texas Rangers.”īut Usher hopes all that is changing with his performance in “Hands of Stone,” the drama about Panamanian boxer Roberto Duran (played by Edgar Ramírez), a passionate but headstrong fighter who became a world champion with the help of legendary coach Ray Arcel (Robert De Niro). ![]() At 37, he has won eight Grammy awards, sold more than 65 million albums worldwide and served as a coach to aspiring singers on NBC’s “The Voice.”īut his film career has been kind of a joke. In the music field, few of today’s artists have been as successful as Usher.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |