Michael Jordan Shut Down Idris Elba’s Request To Play Him In A Biopic
Michael Jordan has made an undeniable imprint on the culture and has continued to do so after retiring from basketball and making an impact globally through his Jordan brand. Idris Elba is an exceptional actor giving standout performances throughout the years. However, most recently the A-list actor shared with Complex that he would jump at the opportunity to play Jordan in a biopic, but the NBA legend’s answer did not favor Elba.
“So Jordan had these wicked getaways in the Bahamas, you know what I’m saying? He would invite a bunch of people out. I think me and Gabrielle Union went out, we was promoting a movie, I think it might have been Daddy’s Little Girls and you know, I was gassed to be at Jordan Weekend,” Elba recalled to Complex.
Elba admitted to seeing basketball icon in passing at industry events but at the Jordan weekend he got up the nerve to ask him to play the businessman in a biopic if the opportunity presented itself.
“I even said to him one time, ‘I want to play you.’ He was like, ’Hm, I’m not ready yet.’… I was dead serious.”
“In my head, playing Jordan wouldn’t be about playing the basketball player, it was about the businessman,” Elba explained. “He is a very astute businessman, really smart. And his work as a philanthropist is unspoken, but people don’t understand the work. He cares, he does a lot of work. So that’s where I was hinting at. I wanna play Jordan, I’m doing that. He was like, ‘I’m not ready for that story yet.’”
Watch the full interview below:
