If you haven't seen Creed by now, you should. Not only does it add to the Rocky storyline, it breaks away from its shadow and becomes worthy of its own series. On Wednesday, Sylvester Stallone shared a behind-the-scenes clip of actor Michael B. Jordan (Adonis Creed) getting punched for real for the movie. It looks just as brutal as it did in the final cut.
Michael B Jordon, "young creed and "getting KO'd for real! But he got up and did it again! That's called guts!! pic.twitter.com/yFo3PVmvhA
— Sylvester Stallone (@TheSlyStallone) December 9, 2015
When Jordan appeared on Bill Simmons' podcast, he actually talked about this very clip, which you can hear around the 18-minute mark of his episode.
Here's what Jordan had to say about filming that day:
"The first couple times we tried to do [the punches], we tried to it with the slips. You know, and it's slow motion, so you can see the misses -- the space between the punches. So, all of a sudden, you just hear this snickering from the corner, and everybody's like "What?" And Sly's like, "Man you gotta take it." I'm like, "What do you mean?" He's like, "No, you gotta take a real punch." Like, pretty much, I had to really get hit. And legally, Ryan [Coogler] -- he'll definitely tell you this -- as a director, he can't legally say "take the punch." So I had to willingly step up and be like, "Alright, I'll take the hit." But I definitely got peer-pressured."
And you know, if it wasn't for that kind of dedication from Jordan, the movie probably wouldn't have been as good if they tried fake punches. If he doesn't get an Oscar nomination for what he did in Creed, that'd be a huge shame.