“Those of us who are fortunate enough to have our dreams come true, we have that moment happen, and then it’s like, holy shit, it’s really scary,” director Ryan Coogler told BuzzFeed News. “That’s what this fight was for Adonis.” SPOILERS!
Warning: The following story contains some mild SPOILERS for the movie Creed.
Michael B. Jordan in Creed.
Barry Wetcher / Warner Bros. Pictures
There are many standout moments in Creed, the boxing drama that inventively continues the Rocky movie franchise by turning the focus to Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan), the son of Rocky's long-dead main rival, Apollo Creed. Just watching Adonis convince Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) to train him — at first in the same gym where Rocky became a Philadelphia legend in the 1976 Oscar-winning film that bears his name — evokes a surprising measure of nostalgic good feeling.
But Creed, currently in theaters, really explodes during Adonis's first professional match as a boxer with Rocky in his corner, for the simple, breathtaking fact that director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station) shot the entire match, from the opening bell to Adonis's knockout punch, in a single take.
"Me and Ryan are really big fans of 'oners,'" Jordan recently told BuzzFeed News over the phone, referring to the industry term for a scene shot in a single take. "We tried to get as many as we could in Fruitvale Station, but ... a lot of times, you don't have the time to achieve that."
With Creed, however, Coogler and Jordan had studio backing and much more time to prepare, so they made the most of it. "Our goal is to get the audience to engage," said Jordan. "I think that's one of my favorite scenes in the movie."
This is how — and why — it was important to pull it off.
They wanted to capture that universal "holy shit" feeling when you get your big shot…
Ryan Coogler and Jordan on the set of Creed.
Barry Wetcher / Warner Bros. Pictures
"Adonis has a lot of fights," Coogler told BuzzFeed News in a phone interview. "We wanted each fight to tell its own story, and we wanted them all to build up to the final moment when he kind of becomes who he was meant to be."
At the onset of the film, we see Adonis in one of a dozen clandestine matches he wins in Mexico. But his first professional match in Philadelphia represents a major turning point for his career.
"Adonis starts off this film wanting to get a trainer, and about a third of the way through the film, he gets his wish," said Coogler. "He gets Rocky training him. It's a really important moment, because those of us who are fortunate enough to have our dreams come true, we have that moment happen, and then it's like, holy shit, it's really scary."
Coogler, a former collegiate football player, continued: "I've been through that as an athlete. I've been through that as a filmmaker. I've been through those moments when you ask people to give you a shot, and then you get it, and all of a sudden, it's like, there's no more excuses, I've got my shot, and now it's the scariest thing in the world, because if it doesn't work out, it's my fault. That's what this fight was for Adonis. He finally has somebody in his corner, and all of a sudden was nervous, because he didn't want to let them down. There's no more excuses. If it doesn't work, it's on him."
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