Movie vs reality: how actors who have played famous athletes look like

Stories of great triumphs and triumphs are not only found in movies. They make up the whole of high-performance sports, but only a few events become the basis of a biographical drama. We have gathered seven actors who have played the roles of world-famous champions in movies. Some of them do bear a striking resemblance to those whose images they embodied on the screen.

Kevin de Paula as Pele

Kevin de Paula played the legendary Pele without having any acting experience under his belt. And yet critics were delighted with how accurately he conveyed the energy of the famous soccer player. In the movie “Pele: Birth of a Legend” shows the childhood and adolescence of Edson Arantis do Nascimento, the years when he received the famous nickname, and the first World Cup in his career – Sweden-1958.

By the way, Pele himself once also had the opportunity to play a footballer in the movie. In the film “Escape to Victory” he played the role of Luis Fernandez, a talented striker team of prisoners of war. The movie is set during World War II in a German camp, where a group of prisoners go out for an exhibition match against German prisoners. Other players of the POW team were also played by famous soccer players – Bobby Moore, Osvaldo Ordiles, John Wark and Kazimierz Deyna.

Danila Kozlovsky as Valery Kharlamov

The crew of the movie “Legend № 17” tried to convey the image of hockey player Valery Kharlamov as accurately as possible. In the frame even appear his personal belongings: a real jacket and a pendant, created in the image and likeness of that worn by the athlete. Relatives of the hockey player recognized that the actor Danila Kozlovsky surprisingly similar to his hero.

“For the role of Dad tried different actors, but Danila Kozlovsky was the best. He stopped by our house, with his grandmother communicated. When the first time he entered, she even cried: “My God, how you look like Valera!”, – said the daughter of Valery Kharlamov Begonita in one of the interviews.

Christina Asmus as Svetlana Khorkina

The movie “Champions: Faster. Higher. Stronger” was filmed with the participation of gymnast Svetlana Khorkina. She together with the producer picked up the main actress and helped her to get into the role. In childhood, Christine Asmus also engaged in artistic gymnastics, so on the set herself performed some acrobatic elements.

However, the Olympic programs Khorkina in the frame still recreated professional athletes. Among them, for example, European champion on uneven bars Daria Skrypnik.

After filming Asmus said: “I was engaged in sports for 10 years. Since then it has been 13, but it turned out that the muscles remember. Much, of course, had to remember, but it was not so difficult. Before filming, I went to the gym for three months and prepared. In the first period – before the Olympics – I performed almost all the tricks on my own, because my training was enough. But when it came to the Olympics, of course, I take my hat off to the understudies here, who are all current female athletes, national athletes, champions.”

Will Smith as Mohammed Ali

When Will Smith was offered the lead role in the drama Ali, he turned it down. Then Mohammed Ali personally called the actor and asked him to join the work on the picture. The result exceeded all expectations. Prior to this movie shooting delayed for 10 years, the script was not once rewritten, and directors replaced each other one after another. But in 2001, the project under the direction of Michael Mann still managed to complete.

To match the appearance of the famous boxer, Will Smith had to gain more than 15 kilograms of muscle mass in less than four months. He completely changed his lifestyle: every morning running 8 kilometers, all day long engaged in the gym and every day for three hours boxing in the ring.

After the filming of the movie between the legendary athlete and the actor began a warm relationship. And when in 2016 Mohammed Ali passed away, Will Smith was one of those who carried his coffin at the funeral.

Ivan Kolesnikov as Alexander Belov

Alexander Belov is a legend of Soviet basketball, 1972 Olympic champion. Today, many became known after the release of the movie “Moving Up”, although the fate of Belov in it is not shown quite accurately. But the appearance of the athlete crew managed to convey very well. Embody the image on the screen managed to Ivan Kolesnikov.

The actor tried to achieve maximum similarity: worked out the movements of the basketball player on the court, learning to make the right throws, practicing technique. Each time before the start of the shooting process actors specially trained.

Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding

Tonya Harding – vice world champion in figure skating and a participant in two Olympics. She was the first woman in U.S. history to perform the most difficult jump in the world – a 3.5-turn axel. In 1994, she was involved in one of the most famous scandals in the world of sports. Her ex-husband Tony Jeff Gillooly and bodyguard Sean Eckardt organized an assassination attempt on Tony’s main rival on the national team – Nancy Kerrigan. Harding was held in this case as an accomplice. These events and are shown in the movie “Tonya against all”.

To achieve the greatest resemblance to the heroine, the performer of the main role Margot Robbie for several hours a day engaged in the skating rink with Harding herself. In the details were thought out even the images of understudies. Facial features of the actress copied and with the help of a special graphics program superimposed on the faces of athletes who instead of her performed multi-turn jumps.

By the way, to master Robbie had to learn not only figure skating. After Harding left the ice, in the early 2000s, she was engaged in professional boxing. So on the set of the actress had to work on the ring.

Alexander Fokin as Lev Yashin

Sports drama “Lev Yashin. Goalkeeper of my dreams” was released at the end of November 2019. The role of the legendary goalkeeper went to Alexander Fokin. For him, this work became his debut in the movie.

To play Yashin is not an easy task, especially since Alexander Fokin has never stood on the gate before. However, he tried to exactly copy the movements, facial expressions and intonations of the famous footballer. Get into the role of the actor helped the grandson of Lev Yashin, Vasily Frolov, who took part in the filming. His hero Fokin was simply delighted.

“There are no other goalkeepers like this in the world. Therefore, it is much more interesting to tell and show Lev Ivanovich in life. This is a man with such a character, willpower, a huge desire to work. He was strong, tough, but somewhere a bit vulnerable. I was very impressed with this role. To see through his eyes what was in his life. A very valuable experience,” – admitted Alexander in an interview.

If you haven’t watched any of the films in this selection yet, be sure to free up a couple of hours for them this weekend and assess for yourself how well the actors managed to embody the images of world sports legends on the screen.