Creed has emerged as a late-in-the-year smash, winning critical plaudits, awards chatter for stars Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone, and becoming a healthy box-office draw to boot. Like its scrappy protagonist, many doubted Creed from the start, secure in their belief that the spin-off of the Rocky franchise would be nothing more than a vulgar cash grab from a property with a little bit of profit left in its veins. But Creed (much like the character) showed them all, displaying charisma and heart that won over even the most cynical of opponents.
A lot of that stems from Jordan’s resolutely committed performance as Adonis Creed, the son of Rocky Balboa’s sparring partner/rival/friend Apollo. Jordan exudes bona fide star quality, wearing his headstrong recklessness comfortably and working his way through a clearly defined transformation with organic smoothness. The fight scenes are a marvel to watch. Nearly worthy of comparisons to the immortal sequences Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro created in Raging Bull, Ryan Coogler’s boxing sequences draw the audience in and smash them with a wicked hook. Even in the heat of a match, Jordan emotes like a champ.
But a video posted to Twitter by Sylvester Stallone earlier today shows that not all of that performance was purely acting. In a brief nine-second clip, Jordan suffers for his art by taking an actual punch directly to the face while filming the climactic boxing scene. It all happens so fast, the little ‘pop’ of the hit and Jordan’s crumpling to the ground all going down in a matter of seconds. It’s the sort of loop that’s hard not to watch over and over again. Go ahead, treat yourself. You’ve worked hard today.
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
