Russell Simmons Says Michael B. Jordan Is Too Hunky to Play Him in Def Jam Biopic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=80&v=CumPuhjzIBU
Russell Simmons has one piece of advice for Michael B. Jordan if he wants to portray him in his forthcoming biopic: get ugly.
“He’s too handsome to play me,” the hip hop mogul tells TMZ about the film he’s producing with Universal based on his record company Def Jam.
In 1983, a then-26-year-old Simmons co-founded the music company with producer Rick Rubin.
“He has to scruff up a lot to play me," the yoga enthusiast and vegan adds. “If he does (portray me) he has to get skinny, get rid of the muscles, all that. But the handsome thing, we have to f—k him up some how.”
Previously Simmons admitted to having an unhealthy lifestyle in the '80s that was fueled by heavy drug use. In fact, he has said that he produced Run-DMC’s 1986 hit “My Adidas” under the influence of angel dust.
“I didn’t look good back then,” he explains to TMZ.
But Jordan isn’t the only potential star who might need to undergo a body transformation for the Def Jam movie.
Jonah Hill is rumored to take on the role of Rubin, though Simmons thinks he’s too overweight at his current size. “I think that’s a great idea,” he says of Oscar-nominated Hill, but he notes that Rubin “was not that big.”
The entrepreneur says that “no deal is done” with casting, but his rise to fame and fortune tale has been in the works for years. “It’s a long way off, but they are aggressively pushing forward," he says, adding, “It’s the fifth time someone licensed my life story.”
No doubt the recent success of Dr. Dre and Ice Cube’s gangster rap group N.W.A. biopic “Straight Outta Compton” proving to be a major summer hit has likely given his Def Jam film some momentum.