There are some artists, and Stephan James is one, who go beyond mere popularity and instead come to embody some part of our shared American story.
With roles that include playing Congressman John Lewis in the Ava DuVernay-directed drama “Selma” and Olympic hero Jesse Owens in “Race,” and starring in “Home Again,” a film about Caribbean deportees, James has made some extremely savvy career choices.
His latest drama, “I Play Rocky,” follows a young, unknown Sylvester Stallone as he fights to bring his vision of “Rocky” to the big screen. Directed by Peter Farrelly, written by Peter Gamble and starring Anthony Ippolito, AnnaSophia Robb, Toby Kebbell, P.J. Byrne, Jay Duplass and Matt Dillon, the film tells the story of how Stallone wrote and made the iconic 1976 film.
(L to R) Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone and Stephen James as Carl Weathers in I PLAY ROCKY, from Amazon MGM Studios. (Photo Credit: Claire Folger)
Stallone was never supposed to star in “Rocky,” which was made on a shoestring budget and became a massive hit, winning three Oscars at the 49th Academy Awards. At the time, he was a struggling actor working at a movie theater and facing homelessness. He was inspired to write the screenplay about a small-time Philadelphia club fighter named Rocky Balboa after watching a Muhammad Ali fight. Fighting to get it made, with himself in the lead, is the story of “I Play Rocky.”
James plays the iconic actor Carl Weathers, who passed away in 2024. In playing the former Oakland Raiders linebacker who did small actioners before portraying Rocky’s memorable rival Apollo Creed, James makes a profound first impression when we meet him halfway through the drama.
(L to R) Director Peter Farrelly with actors Anthony Ippolito and Stephan James during the production of I PLAY ROCKY, from Amazon MGM Studios. (Photo Credit: Claire Folger)
“Every role presents a different challenge or a different way you want to go in and go about as you are filling their shoes to the best of your ability,” shares the actor. “The thing that made Carl so special was just the many qualities that he had. He is this larger than life figure and can be this charismatic, swaggerific guy, but he can also be intellectual and humorous and not take himself too seriously as well. It was really important for me to make sure that I was tapping into that essence of him,” continues James, whose films include “The Piano Lesson,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “21 Bridges” and “Night Always Comes.”
The story also struck a personal chord.
“From an actor’s perspective, any artist can relate with being told no a hundred times and still chasing that yes, so I definitely related and resonated with it from that perspective. Rocky is one of the most important films in the history of films and is the underdog story. There hasn’t been a more profound underdog story in the history of cinema,” James adds. “If this didn’t happen this way or if this domino didn’t fall like this, we would never have had Rocky. I think it really makes the story all that much more unbelievable when you just realize what it took and how many things had to go right for Rocky to happen.”
Stephan James attends the Amazon MGM Studios Premiere of “I Play Rocky” at the Toronto International Film Festival (Photo by Eric Charbonneau)
It’s certainly a relatable story for James, an Emmy-nominated Canadian actor who was inspired to become an actor by his older brother and fellow actor, Shamier Anderson.
“I’ve always sort of recognized the artist in myself and how art spoke to me but I didn’t necessarily know how I was going to channel that myself. I remember going to theater performances my brother was in at theater school. The first seed was planted in my head that people from where I come from can do this and it can be rewarding and fulfilling and you know hopefully, maybe there’s a career I can build out of it. I was very lucky to be able to have done that.”
James, whose parents hail from Jamaica, was the first recipient of the Canadian Screen Awards’ Radius Award, given to a Canadian film or television professional. He has also produced several projects, including the space thriller “Beacon 23” and the upcoming film “The Journeyman.”
His commitment to opportunity extends beyond his own career. To create opportunities for fellow Canadian artists of color, James and his brother launched a non profit organization called the B.L.A.C.K. Academy (Building a Legacy in Acting, Cinema + Knowledge), which hosts an annual award show, The Legacy Awards.
Asked what he hopes audiences take from “I Play Rocky,” a role which has earned him a Critics Choice Supporting Actor Award, James returns to the idea at the heart of the story. “I can accomplish anything if I believe in myself and have perseverance, determination and a belief in the impossible,” he says. “I think this film presents those same qualities.”
