“Let me tell you a little story about acting.” These are words that Carl Weathers, playing a fictionalized version of himself, once spoke as a drama coach on the sitcom “Arrested Development.” Yet they could also apply to Weathers and his acting career long before “Arrested Development,” the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian,” or even the sci-fi action movie “Predator.”When he auditioned for the role of Apollo Creed, the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, in the first “Rocky” film, Weathers was a virtual unknown in the acting world.
He already had a pro football career behind him, having played as an NFL linebacker for the Oakland Raiders before he went back to school and earned a drama degree.
However, his acting résumé was limited to television and “some movies out of Aip which was then doing quote-unquote ‘Blacksploitation,’” as he once put it on The Rich Eisen Show.
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