EXCLUSIVE: Jonathan Majors Discusses Creed III

Jonathan Majors has joined the Creed franchise in the series newest movie, Creed III. Majors opened up about the opportunity to play Damian in the new film, his director, Michael B. Jordan and so much more. Check out what he had to say below.

What was one of the things that was very central to the character that you wanted to make sure stayed in all of these different iterations as you guys shaped it? 

“The most ancient quality that was put in by the homies was this aspiration for freedom.  And not just physical freedom, but mental freedom.  That never changed.  That never shifted.  That was the thing that I went, ‘Okay, that makes sense to me.’  They baked it in.  Mike [Jordan] saw it.  We went after it.  You know.  It’s the most universal quality in the piece.  Second to that was brotherhood. That brotherhood became paramount. Because that’s connected between our hero and me.  So those two elements.  And the changing of the name is all about implication.  For those of you who don’t know, his name was Brandon.  Then Mike came and, ‘Well, Dame.  Okay, Dame, all right, let’s roll.  Damian.’  Then whatever that generic last name was, it was up in the air to be changed, potentially.  And I said, ‘Well, how about Anderson?’  Anderson is my maternal last name.  It’s my mother’s last name.  And that had to do with implication.  I can’t tell you, one of the highlights of the experience was when Mike said yes to that.  Then when I walked in the day of fighting, and we’ve done all our prep, and I’m the steel.  I’m in a Rocky movie.  I’m in a Creed movie.  I’m about to fight Michael B. Jordan.  It’s on.”

Was that intimidating?

“You’re a little nervous.  There’s a little something going on, but you look out there and you see Adonis.  And you see Anderson.  And that type of implication.  That type of, like, ‘oh, we’re here now.  This is me.  This is us.’  That was a huge gift from my director.  And just kept the process more emboldened, you know.”

Did you have anybody that you were pulling from to shape the character?

“Yeah, in a nutshell. In a nutshell, first and foremost, it was my stepfather. The idea of freedom that I spoke about earlier. My stepdad was locked up 15 years before he got with my mom and then raised me up. The ankle monitor situation, the PO. You know, there’s a box at the house. I was the kid that was, like, trying to make sure Dad got home on time before the parole officer got to the crib. And I watched it. I watched that happen. My stepdad also he tried out for the Dallas Cowboys. I’m from Dallas. Almost made it to the Cowboys. He was in the second round, right? I watched that aspiration. I watched that hustle. I watched that dream that he had. There’s a big part about that. That big, hard shell. You know, that young boy in it that had the aspirations to be more, to be free.

So that’s a big part of it. But not the big part, just half. And then we have the brother, Ryan’s best friend, Delo who was essentially my touchstone. He actually experienced very much the life that Dame had experienced. I got pictures of how he stood. There’s a certain decorum to the lifestyle that Delo just had. Still had. Walked with it. Talked with it.

And I can check in with him [Jordan] at the top. Then every time we saw each other, we was talking that shit. I watched all the Rocky films, did all that. But it was very clear to me that the only thing that was really important was who Adonis was in this third installment. And how to antagonize this character. How to help this character continue his hero’s journey. So I studied Adonis, and I studied Mike. I saw everything. I saw his values. And us being brothers. Being close friends. How our values had to be similar, and how we went after it had to be different. The film was our relational for Dame. Dame lives and dies on his relationship with Adonis Creed. Everything else is set decoration. It’s all about him. And so that was the most, thrill, I think, inspiration. That, I met every day. That I got to meet every day.”

Creed III is now in theaters.

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity