"I was doing stand up comedy, and I went to my Mike Tyson joke and nobody laughed. You know why? Cause Mike is in the audience." Foxx told ESPN.
"A guy at the back yelled: 'Mike said do the joke. But it better be funny.'"
Advertisement
Ahead of his starring role as Mike Tyson, actor Jamie Foxx showcased his best "Iron Mike" voice while telling the story of a hilarious encounter with the former heavyweight champion in a comedy club.
The film, which is to be directed by Martin Scorsese and will detail Tyson's rise to fame and subsequent decline, is set to begin filming in late 2020, according to Screenrant.
Speaking with ESPN when asked about his preparation for the role, Foxx said: "Well, the thing about it is, is I knew Mike back in the day.
"I was doing stand up comedy, and one night I was in the club, and I went to my Mike Tyson joke and nobody laughed. You know why? Cause Mike is in the audience. And this was back in the day when Mike was knocking people out for just smiling wrong.
Advertisement
"I get to the joke, and somebody yelled: 'Mike is in here.' And I was like, 'Oh, snap!' There was a little black lady in the front, she was like: 'What you gon' do Jamie? You gon' do your little jokes? You too scared?"
Foxx added: "A guy at the back yelled: 'Mike said do the joke. But it better be funny.'"
Fortunately for Foxx, he said Tyson did find it funny, and later asked him to hang out after the show. From there the two became friends, an experience which Foxx believes will help him portray the controversial boxer in the most rounded possible way.
"Being able to hang out with him and watch the rise, watch the fall and all those things, it just helps when we are now putting together this incredible story for him," Foxx said on ESPN.
Advertisement
"When I talked to Mike once not too long ago, few years back when we started the journey, I said, 'Mike, how're you feeling?'
"He says: 'All praises to Allah my brother, I'm just happy.' I said, 'Why you happy?' He said: 'Because I don't have any money anymore, so no vultures around me. I feel clear, clear minded.'
"That's the Mike that we need to show. We need to show that vulnerability. We need to show that redemptive Mike Tyson that we now know and love."
Tyson, now 54, rose to prominence in the ring as a teenager in the mid-1980s, and became the youngest heavyweight champion in history when beat Trevor Berbick for the WBC title in 1986 aged just 20 years and four months.
Tyson went on to become one of the sport's most feared ever fighters, winning 44 of his 58 fights by knockout, however his career was also marred by controversies inside and outside the ring.
Advertisement
In 1992, he was convicted of rape and spent three years in prison, while he also accused of domestic abuse, to which he later admitted to Oprah Winfrey, by ex-wife Robin Givens.
NewsletterSIMPLY PUT - where we join the dots to inform and inspire you. Sign up for a weekly brief collating many news items into one untangled thought delivered straight to your mailbox.