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Idris Elba Asked Michael Jordan if He Could Play Him in a Biopic

MJ Golf

Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan looks on after practice at NBA basketball training camp in Asheville, N.C., Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Is Idris Elba the next Michael Jordan?

With all the buzz on HBO’s Winning time, is it time for a Michael Jordan-approved biopic one day? You know it’s going to happen eventually. Actor Idris Elba wants that starring role as the basketball legend. Elba recently spoke to Complex and revealed his story behind asking Michael Jordan face-to-face if he could portray him in a biopic. Things didn’t exactly as he would have hoped.

MJ is not about to let his story be told.

“So Jordan had these wicked getaways in the Bahamas, you know what I’m saying? He would invite a bunch of people out. I think me and Gabrielle Union went out, we was promoting a movie, I think it might have been Daddy’s Little Girls and you know, I was gassed to be at Jordan Weekend.”

He admitted to meeting Jordan “once or twice,” but it was “just to say hello.” Elba added:

“I even said to him one time, ‘I want to play you.’ He was like, ’Hm, I’m not ready yet.’… I was dead serious.”

“In my head, playing Jordan wouldn’t be about playing the basketball player, it was about the businessman. He is a very astute 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 I was hinting at. I wanna play Jordan, I’m doing that. He was like, ‘I’m not ready for that story yet.’”

If I’m casting a Michael Jordan Biopic I’m probably going a little bit younger than  Idris. Isn’t the obvious choice Michael B. Jordan???


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