Duncan on Daredevil
While promoting his role in The Scorpion King Michael Clarke Duncan talked about his preparations to play the villainous Kingpin in the Daredevil movie.
"They told me I was too small so I have to get up to 340 and I'm at 325 right now," Duncan said. "Right now, as far as weight lifting, I do everything heavy. I'm back into my heavy lifting. I had abandoned my heavy lifting because I was getting really big after The Green Mile and it was kind of hard for me to lose that weight. I got down to 285 and started seeing my AB muscles. Next thing I know, I get this role which they want me up a little bit more so I'm back to heavy workouts now. I have to eat five and six times a day, and I get paid for it. What can I say?"
Duncan was a fan of the comic books and jumped at the chance to play Kingpin. "Don't ask me why, but I like the evil guys. He's the big villain. He runs all the mob in New York and has all this real estate and nobody can touch him. I always wear good suits with a red rose and smoke cigars. It's going to be real good."
Since the comic-book superhero adaptation will have a large action quotient, Duncan is excited about his fight scenes. "At the end of the script, Daredevil and Kingpin have this big fight and Kingpin is a big guy but he's very agile and he knows karate and stuff. In my first scene, I have my assistant time me and he brings in these four karate masters. I have to beat them within 15 seconds. I take the first guy and just slam his head to the concrete. It takes 11 seconds [to get all four]. I look at my watch and say, '11 seconds. The first two guys were good, but let's get better at the second two.'"
Duncan promises a new interpretation on the character while remaining faithful to the comic. "I'm going to bring something else totally different to this guy because in the comic book he's white. That's an honor to me, being African-American and to be portraying this guy. I've always wanted to be a kingpin type of guy where I order everybody around. For the first time, I don't have any makeup. I'm in nice suits. I have nice shoes, gold watches and platinum, smoking cigars. I have pretty women around me."