Usher is off to a great start this year as the R&B crooner will be taking on the role of Sugar Ray Leonard in the upcoming film about Roberto Duran’s boxing career titled “Hands of Stone.”
The 34-year-old crooner has quite the tight schedule now. After earning one of those exciting swiveling chairs on “The Voice” Usher has also bagged a role in “Hands Of Stone” where he will be using his dance skills to play Sugar Ray Leonard.
Now before you think Usher will portray Sugar Ray moon walking across the boxing arena let me explain.
The “Climax” singer believes that his grace and poise on the dance floor is exactly what will help him bring the legendary boxer to life in the ring.
“You couldn’t find a more stylized boxer than Sugar Ray Leonard,” Usher told the Huffington Post. “He was an incredible motion guy, the way he moved around the ring, and I think my dancing will make it easier for me to pick up his moves.”
“The Voice” coach is aware that it’s going to take a lot more than just dance skills to get ready to play the boxing icon.
“I’ve been working on familiarizing myself with the ring, sparring and just understanding how to move in the ring,” he added.
Well he will certainly need to do a lot more sparring and dancing because he is required to drop a good 20 pounds before they start filming.
While Usher currently weighs in around 170 pounds, Leonard weighed 150 during that time.
The award winning R&B star seems pretty confident about the role overall despite the fact that this will be his first major role in a film, but he claimed that at this point he is simply excited to take on the challenge.
“I’m up for the challenge, and I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I think my overall feeling is one of anticipation. It seems like this is a real project. It’s a film that everybody is so invested in, and I have the good fortune of having the character I’m playing still around.”
Usher won’t be the only big name to come together for the massive project.
Robert De Niro will take on the role of Duran’s famous trainer who is celebrated today in the Hall of Fame, Ray Arcel.
So who will be taking on the major role of Duran himself? None other than Edgar Ramirez who had great success recently with the film “Zero Dark Thirty.”
Perhaps the most interesting part of the film will be seeing Usher, who is quite posh and pretty boy-ish, getting punched on camera.
We didn’t think he would let anyone even touch his face, nonetheless whack it a few times.
