Jharrel Jerome wondered what he'd signed up for when he met wrestler Anthony Robles for the first time before playing him in Unstoppable.
The Moonlight actor realised the magnitude of his acting job when he met the university wrestling champion, who was born with one leg, for the first time in a gym in January 2020.
"The first time I met Anthony I was terrified, I was nervous, I was in gym clothes. We got in the gym and I got to just see the physical beast this man. I'm kind of sitting there like, 'Damn! What did I sign up for?'" he recalled during a post-screening Q&A in London. "But that was very momentary - after 20 minutes listening to him and seeing him smile and seeing him look at me like, 'Ah, pretty good-looking too.' From then on, it became so much more than me playing this guy in a movie. It's a brotherhood, it's a friendship."
The When They See Us star explained that they became "very close" because the real Robles played his body double and stunt double and was on set with him every day after months of training beforehand.
"I got to train with Anthony himself and I think that shaped a lot of what you got to see. We actually trained with his actual college coach from ASU (Arizona State University) and we trained for seven months, five days a week, two hours a day," he shared.
When he wasn't training for the wrestling scenes with Robles, Jerome was honing his accent and working with a movement coach to convincingly walk with crutches like his counterpart.
"For Anthony, it was not just the wrestling, but he's so nimble on the crutches. It couldn't look like I sprained my ankle two weeks ago, I had to look comfortable," he explained, noting that he spent "two hours a day, five days a week, (for) seven months" working on that too.
Unstoppable, also starring Jennifer Lopez, is in limited cinemas now. It will be released on Prime Video on 16 January.
