Mike Tyson Wanted to Play This Shakespeare Character
Mike Tyson made a rewarding transition to acting after years spent being one of the top boxers in the world. But one role Tyson wanted to play might surprise you.
Mike Tyson was interested in playing this Shakespeare character
After retiring from boxing, Tyson spent time carving out his acting portfolio. He appeared in projects like The Hangover and Law & Order. He also voiced his own animated cartoon show, Mike Tyson Mysteries, on Adult Swim. Although Tyson starred in comedies, he never fancied himself as a comedy actor. Rather, Tyson wanted to stretch his range by adopting a large variety of roles.
“I never look at myself as a comedy type of guy. I just do what the director tells me to do. But I would definitely like to play different types of roles. I like stage acting. That’s really who I am,” he once told HuffPost.
Tyson didn’t only limit himself to film and television. He also starred in the Broadway project Undisputed Truth, directed by Spike Lee, which saw the boxer almost entirely take center stage.
Tyson once confided that he was interested in tackling the stage again, but this time not as himself. Speaking with Daily Mirror (via Contact Music), Tyson revealed his interest in doing Shakespeare. He even had the character in mind he would’ve liked to portray.
“I absolutely want to do Shakespeare,” Tyson said. “I was just talking to somebody, and he quoted, ‘First thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers’, and we laughed. And then he said that came from Shakespeare’s Henry Vi, all the lawyers. Shakespeare said that. He had such powerful insights. I don’t know which exact role I would want, but I know it would be challenging to do Othello. I couldn’t do a performance on the stage as it would be mortifying, and the camera filming a show would be easier for me. The role is very complex and would need a lot of studying. I would need to work on my linguistics. Wouldn’t Shakespeare be awesome? That black guy… could you imagine me in Othello.”
Mike Tyson once compared his boxing persona to acting
Although Tyson was primarily known for his boxing days, he was determined to succeed in entertainment as he did in the world of sports. He hoped to match his massive accomplishments in the boxing world.
“I haven’t reached the amount of success in acting as I did in boxing,” Tyson said. “So I would always have to lean toward boxing because I’ve seen such magnificent heights there and unimaginable dreams. I was able to help a lot of people as well. I’m just looking to reach that status in acting, so I can work in the form of a missionary, where I can also give to international charities around the world and be involved with them.”
On the surface, there may have been little similarities between his boxing and acting careers. But Tyson’s experience in the world of combat sports might’ve helped his eventual Hollywood career. Tyson was known for his fierce personality as a boxer, as much as he was known for his skill set. He asserted that persona was a bit of a performance to entertain the audience.
“It has a great deal of that involved because you are in a role,” Tyson told The Talk. “For every particular role you have to be disciplined and, in that particular time, you have to be that killer. You have to have the discipline to pull it off.”
Back then, he felt boxing didn’t thrive the way it did during Tyson’s time due to the many entertaining characters in the field.
“Every part of entertainment needs a character. If you don’t have a character…being skillful; that’s nice too, but it’s more than being very skillful. You have to have a personality and boxing doesn’t have a personality,” Tyson said.
