Michael Jordan turned down Idris Elba’s offer to play him in a biopic

It is not common that a good day an actor of weight in Hollywood arrives at your door to seek to interpret you in a fiction about your life. Yet those are the kind of offers that land in Michael Jordan’s mailbox, and it was none other than Idris Elba who filled out the application. The actor asked the former NBA player for permission to play him for a biopicHowever, Jordan rejected his offer, saying he’s not ready for it yet.

“I even told him once, ‘I want to play you,'” Elba said. “He told me, ‘Hm, I’m not ready yet.’ That’s what he said, ‘I’m not ready yet.’ … He was very serious.”

Idris Elba is perhaps one of the most respected British actors today. His personality and demeanor have even made him an audience favorite in the race for the new 007. However, the actor has a project in mind that has little or nothing to do with the world of espionage.

Elba tried to raise a tape based on the life of Michael Jordan. She even managed to get close to him to explain his idea and ask for his permission to be the one to bring it to life on screen. The former member of the Chicago Bulls quickly dethroned his illusions. Although there are countless documentaries about his time in the NBA, and even he himself has starred in one or another movie, the fact that he digs into his personal life is something that he still does not want to see in the screen.

the protagonist of Luther he related it to podcast Sneaker Tote of Complex:

“In my head, playing Jordan wouldn’t be about playing the basketball player; he was the businessman. He is a very cunning 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 he was interested. I want to play you Jordan. I am doing this. He told me: ‘Oh, I’m not ready for that story yet’ ».

At most, only Netflix has managed to portray a bit of the figure of Michael Jordan. However, that happened in a ten-episode docuseries, where the details of a season of the Chicago Bulls during the nineties are barely told.

In The last DanceHowever, Michael Jordan has a prominent presence. Not only because he was the great protagonist of that mythical season of 1997 and 1998. But because he even agreed to use old interviews and archive material, and to generate new talks with the ESPN team, who made the alliance with Netflix for the material distribution.

Perhaps Idris Elba will get his chance to play Michael Jordan, if Ben Affleck and Matt Damon put a spin on their next project. The pair is already building the script for a movie based on Sonny Vaccaro, the real-life Nike executive who pursued and ultimately achieved a million-dollar alliance with the former player and the aforementioned sports brand.

Damon will play Vaccaro while Affleck will play Nike co-founder Phil Knight. But the script does not have in mind to focus on Jordan. What’s more, he doesn’t even think that he should appear in the movie. Rather “Jordan will be a mythical figure that looms over the film and will never be seen. Even when Vaccaro tries to get to him by accessing the people around him.”

Of course Ben Affleck will be the one to take the reins of the direction. So maybe Elba should do a pitch directly with him and not with Jordan. Would you like to see Idris Elba in the shoes of the legendary basketball player?

Luis Angel H Mora My Hogwarts letter never came, so I focused my life on movies. I like to write, Harry Potter, Doctor Who and parties where I wear an astrologer. John Williams and The Killers musicalize the drama of my life.