Jonathan Majors Says Listening to Nipsey Hussle Was ‘Helpful’ When Preparing for ‘Creed III’ Role

Jonathan Majors is crediting the late rapper Nipsey Hussle as the main person he drew inspiration from when preparing for his role in Creed III.

Majors recently opened up about his preparation for portraying Damian “Diamond Dame” Anderson in the latest installment of the Rocky franchise. With his character being an L.A. native, Majors decided to dig deep into Hussle’s and Tupac Shakur’s discographies for creative references.

“I listened to a lot of Tupac, Nipsey Hussle,” Majors told SlashFilm. “All of Nipsey’s stuff was really helpful.”

“They’re from the same area, Dame and him, so that’s cool. There’s also dialect work, and so he’s rapping in his LA sound,’ he continued.

The Harder They Fall star noted the similarities between his Creed III character and Hussle’s real-life persona prior to his death in March 2019.

“The things [Hussle] is talking about are things that resonate with the world that Dame comes from, so that was very helpful,” Majors said.

The trained actor shared his method for using music as a reference for preparing for certain roles. When it came to Creed III, Majors curated playlists based on certain scenes he was filming.

“There’s other songs that come from your subconscious that touch you in a way that can align you,” he explained. “You write that song next to the top of the page or whatever, and there’s playlist upon playlist upon playlist. Those can curate it into ‘This is that scene’ or ‘This is that moment.’”

Creed III exceeded expectations with its opening weekend numbers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film that serves as Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut earned $58.5 domestically with $22 million made on its opening night.

The film is also doing well overseas, raking in $41.8 million from 75 cities with a total of $100.4 million globally. MGM boasts the third installment to the Creed franchise as the biggest sports film opening in history.