And, according to Rhodes, Mike finds a way of balancing Tyson’s truths—including the highs of his boxing glory to the lows of his 1992 rape conviction—while still making him feel like a human being.
“It’s being present and understanding that complexity of a man,” he said. “I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to convey it, to show myself in a particular way.”
And it wasn’t just Rhodes who didn’t have access to the real-life player he was portraying, as Russell Hornsby, who plays controversial boxing promoter and one-time Tyson confidant Don King, revealed to E! News he felt similarly about the unfortunate lack of face time with the now 91-year-old.
“It would have been nice to have been able to sit down with Don for a cup of coffee, a cup of tea, something like that,” Hornsby told E!. “Sit with him for a few hours, a whole day, a couple days a week and just get a sense of what his thought process was and what he was thinking about, what he was living with.”