Golden Globe-winning actor Idris Elba would love to play Michael Jordan in a biopic, but the NBA legend apparently isn't ready for a movie about his life.
On the latest episode of Complex's "Sneaker Shopping," Elba revealed that he once floated the idea to Jordan of portraying him in a movie. Jordan turned him down.
"I even said to him one time, 'I want to play you,'" Elba told host Joe La Puma. "He was like, 'Hm, I'm not ready yet.' That's what he said, 'I'm not ready yet.' ... I was dead serious.
He continued: "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, like, 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, 'Ah, I'm not ready for that story yet.'"
While it could be some time before a Jordan biopic comes to fruition, part of his story will be told in an upcoming movie about Nike's efforts to sign him to an endorsement deal. Jordan himself won't be depicted in the film and will instead be treated as an elusive figure in the story.
