‘Big George Foreman’ movie: Khris Davis used NFL nutritionist,

Sports have dominated the big screen early in 2023. First came Tom Brady’s road-trip comedy “80 for Brady.” Then “Creed III.” Then “Air,” the story of how Nike landed Michael Jordan. Now, yet another addition to the genre is heading to theaters in “Big George Foreman,” out Friday and chronicling the life of the unlikely heavyweight boxing champion.

Sure enough, actual sports also fueled the film’s production. A year after Mark Wahlberg underwent a physical transformation to play a boxer-turned-priest in “Father Stu,” former football player Khris Davis worked alongside a New Orleans Saints nutritionist to accurately portray Foreman. Previously seen in “Space Jam: A New Legacy” and “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Davis headlines a cast that includes Academy Award-winner Forest Whitaker.

“Big George Foreman” is co-produced by Mandalay Pictures, one of the companies behind “Air.” Its star, Davis, joined CBS Sports this week to preview the film, discuss his sports background, and his future on screen:

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You’re from Camden, New Jersey, so you know the Philly area well. How much did growing up around such a passionate sports scene influence your ability to step into sports roles, on stage and on screen?

Davis: Well I grew up playing sports, and I think having that athletic background actually is what helps perform on stage, because you have such agency over your body as an athlete. I started playing sports from the time I was 8 years old all the way on up. My dad, on Saturdays, we wouldn’t wake up and watch cartoons and eat cereal. My dad would wake us up, and we would go jogging. And then we’d go to an open field, and we would run drills, we would do bear crawls up hills. … So those were my Saturdays as a kid. So I grew up playing sports. In a sense, it’s only natural and fitting that that part of my life, I’m able to share…