The Emmy-nominated star of “Selma” and “If Beale Street Could Talk” opens up about honoring a legend, the underdog spirit, and building doors for the next generation of Black artists. Some actors are famous. Others carry a piece of a larger story. Stephan James belongs firmly in the second group.
His résumé reads like a tour through the history that shaped the Black diaspora. He played civil rights icon John Lewis in “Selma” and track legend Jesse Owens in “Race,” and he took on the plight of Caribbean deportees in “Home Again.” Each choice was deliberate, and each has made him one of the most respected actors of his generation.
His newest role may be his boldest. In “I Play Rocky,” directed by Peter Farrelly, James portrays the late Carl Weathers, the former Oakland Raiders linebacker who became Apollo Creed, Rocky Balboa’s most unforgettable rival. The film tells the true story behind the 1976 classic. A broke, unknown Sylvester Stallone, played by Anthony Ippolito, was working in a movie theater and facing homelessness when he wrote a screenplay inspired by a Muhammad Ali fight. He refused to sell it unless he played the lead. The film went on to win three Oscars. The cast also includes AnnaSophia Robb, Toby Kebbell, P.J. Byrne, Jay Duplass and Matt Dillon.
James doesn’t appear until the film’s midpoint, but his entrance is a strong one and playing a real person who is no longer here to guide you is never simple, and James knows it. “Every role presents a different challenge or a different way you want to go in and go about as you are filling their shoes to the best of your ability,” he says.
What drew him to Weathers was range. “The thing that made Carl so special was just the many qualities that he had. He is this larger than life figure and can be this charismatic, swaggerific guy, but he can also be intellectual and humorous and not take himself too seriously as well. It was really important for me to make sure that I was tapping into that essence of him.”
The film’s heartbeat, James says, is the struggle behind the miracle. “From an actor’s perspective, any artist can relate with being told no a hundred times and still chasing that yes, so I definitely related and resonated with it from that perspective. Rocky is one of the most important films in the history of films and is the underdog story. There hasn’t been a more profound underdog story in the history of cinema.”
He is struck by how fragile the whole thing was. “If this didn’t happen this way or if this domino didn’t fall like this, we would never have had Rocky. I think it really makes the story all that much more unbelievable when you just realize what it took and how many things had to go right for Rocky to happen.”
For James, the underdog theme is personal. The Canadian-born actor, whose parents are from Jamaica, found his calling by watching his older brother, actor Shamier Anderson, perform at theater school. “I’ve always sort of recognized the artist in myself and how art spoke to me but I didn’t necessarily know how I was going to channel that myself. I remember going to theater performances my brother was in at theater school. The first seed was planted in my head that people from where I come from can do this and it can be rewarding and fulfilling and you know hopefully, maybe there’s a career I can build out of it. I was very lucky to be able to have done that.”
That seed has grown into a career spanning “The Piano Lesson,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “21 Bridges” and “Night Always Comes.” It also brought him a Critics Choice Supporting Actor Award for this role and the inaugural Radius Award from the Canadian Screen Awards. He has also moved into producing, with credits including the space thriller “Beacon 23” and the upcoming “The Journeyman.”
James hasn’t kept his success to himself. With his brother, he founded the B.L.A.C.K. Academy (Building a Legacy in Acting, Cinema + Knowledge), a non-profit creating pathways for Black Canadian artists. The academy also hosts the annual Legacy Awards.
Asked what he hopes audiences carry out of the cinema, James goes back to the story’s core. “I can accomplish anything if I believe in myself and have perseverance, determination and a belief in the impossible,” he says. “I think this film presents those same qualities.”
“I Play Rocky” opens in theaters November 6.
Samantha Ofole-Prince is a U.S. based journalist and movie critic who covers industry-specific news that includes television, film and music.
