The Hurt Locker star Anthony Mackie wants to be the leading contender to star in a movie about boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard after meeting the sports icon on the set of his latest film.
The fighter was brought in to train Hugh Jackman - MaCkie's Real Steel co-star - and the actor admits he developed the utmost respect for the former champ.
He tells BlogTalkRadio.com, "My goal now is to play Sugar Ray Leonard in a movie just because hanging with him, I'm like, 'He's the coolest dude in the world.'
"I'm going around the room trying to get someone to introduce me. So he comes up to me and goes, 'Anthony, how's it going? I enjoyed your work. Good work in the movie man.' I'm like, 'Oh s**t, Sugar Ray Leonard saw me in a movie!'
"I heard his memoirs just came out, so I know what I'm doing tomorrow! I'll look into that. He was such an amazing boxer. Every fight he went into he had a specific purpose going in and it was more of a mental fight than a physical fight for him. He was never a huge guy. He literally held all his punches until the last 10 seconds of every round and just released them in a fury."