Actor Khris Davis honed his craft in Mount Airy before George Foreman movie

Camden native Khris Davis, a graduate of Cheyney University, a man who once scrapped metal for money, was relaxing in a car with George Foreman when the former heavyweight champion whipped his head around and stared into his eyes.

“‘Look at me!’” Davis recalled Foreman saying in a recent Zoom interview. “I’m like, ‘uhhh, uhhh…”

Voice frantic, eyes bulging, body trembling, Davis simulated fear as he recalled the tale.

“And I’m looking at him in his eyes and he said, ‘You find me?!’” Davis said. “And I’m like, ‘I see you.’ Then he says, ‘Now find yourself. Did you find yourself? Look me in the eyes and find yourself.’”

Davis paused for effect. His cadence slowed, voice steadied, body unclenched.

“I said, ‘I found myself,”’ Davis continued. “He said, ‘Are you sure?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘That’s what I was doing with my opponents. I was looking for myself in their eyes.’”

That advice, Davis said, was key to his portrayal of Foreman in the upcoming biopic: Big George Foreman, which opens in movie theaters April 28.

“I thought that was a beautiful metaphor for telling his story because he was always looking for himself in one way or another,” Davis said.

To find Foreman, Davis leaned on theater skills he honed in Mount Airy, drastically transformed his body, learned to box, took a few real punches, and soared to heights some doubted he could achieve.

Alex Burns, 41, still remembers when he met Davis at an open-call audition in 2010.

Burns, who was born in Chestnut Hill Hospital and then raised in the theater, went to Germantown Friends School and then fell in love with Shakespeare while in college at Northwestern.

Davis went to the Creative Arts High School in Camden and was a 2009 cum laude graduate of the nation’s first HBCU, where he joined the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and earned a theater arts degree.

Wearing a bowtie and sleeveless cardigan, Davis delivered a monologue in a British accent as Othello.

“I remember it was one of those moments when you just kind of fell in love with him right away,” said Burns last week during an interview inside the Sedgwick Theater. “His energy was so powerful even then.”

Perhaps Burns, the artistic director at the Quintessence Theater Group in Mount Airy, was being generous to his friend and former roommate.

“It was terrible,” said Davis, laughing on Zoom in Los Angeles. “… but he saw something in me that was deeper and more interesting. He could see what I was capable of beyond that silly accent.”

Burns and a friend had started Quintessence in New York City to create a space for young theater artists who wanted to ensure the survival of classics such as Shakespeare.

Before long, Burns moved the operation to the Sedgwick Theater on Germantown Avenue.

Soon after, he was directing an ensemble of about 10 hungry actors (literally and figuratively), including Davis, who for a time lived near 27th and Dickinson Streets in Grays Ferry and hustled on the side by packaging computers in a warehouse, working security at nightclubs, and bussing tables at a restaurant.

“There was a time in my life where it got so hard that I was scrapping metal to make money,” Davis said.

At some point, he moved back to Camden, but commuting eventually wore him down until Burns offered him a place to stay.

“Those were some of the coolest years in my journey, living with Al, becoming really close friends,” Davis said. “I mean I don’t even want to say friend. It’s more apt to call him brother.”

“He was a very good friend to me and a very good support in my career,” he continued. “And I wonder, often times, where I would’ve been if I had never met Alex Burns.”

» READ MORE: Down went Joe Frazier 50 years ago in a loss to George Foreman that altered lives. Philly would rise again.

Davis was at his grandmother’s 78th birthday party in Camden during a July 4 weekend when he learned he’d be playing Foreman.

His initial reaction was measured. When he relayed the news to his family in the kitchen, he said, their response seemed to echo his.

“I don’t think that they even really understood because I don’t think I understood just how large it could be or even [how big] it was in that moment,” he said.

Later, he added: “But immediately I understood the responsibility that was going to go into it and I just wanted to get to work.”

Davis had played a boxer on stage before, but had never “gloved-up,” he said. His previous film roles included Judas and the Black Messiah and Space Jam: A New Legacy. He had also performed on Broadway in Death of a Salesman, opposite Wendell Pierce, best known for starring in The Wire.

It was, however, Davis’s experience at Quintessence, which he refers to as “grad school,” that provided the foundation from which he portrayed one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time.

For example, Davis said, playing Foreman from ages 17 to 45 required him to contort his face and body in ways that could reflect youthful naïveté yet also conjure the demeanor of a jaded, older fighter.

At least one reviewer believes Davis succeeded.

In a Zoom interview, Foreman said Davis captured him best as a young man running from police, hiding beneath a house, and covering himself in sewage to hide his scent from police dogs.

“When I saw him put that junk on his face, it took me back,” Foreman said. “…Khris Davis did a wonderful job. What an actor. I’m glad he got the job.”

Davis also transformed his body.

Foreman’s weight fluctuated from 215 to 315 pounds during his career. A fat suit, Davis said, wasn’t an option. He thought it would be a mistake to not commit in every way.

So with the help of a nutritionist, Davis varied his food intake depending on the weight he needed to play. Sometimes, he said, that meant adjusting week to week; other times day to day.

His most dramatic transformation occurred during a five-week span when his weight jumped from 228 to 275 pounds so he could play an older, heavier Foreman. The heaviest Davis got was 282.

Gaining weight naturally while still training as a boxer meant consuming up to 7,000 calories per day.

Davis’s commitment to authenticity also meant eating a few punches.

“There’s not a single fight in this film that I did not participate in,” he said. “Nobody stood in for me. Nobody took a punch for me. Nobody threw a punch for me. And we made real contact in this film.”

At Quintessence, Burns is preparing for his next show: Written by Phillis, which is inspired by the letters and poetry of Phillis Wheatley Peters, an enslaved person considered one of the best-known poets of pre-19th century America.

Posters with Davis playing prominent characters still adorn the theater walls. Young actors, Burns said, have recognized Davis’s face and have been inspired that he once sharpened his skills in the same hall.

Hard work and perseverance, Burns said, are what truly set Davis apart.

“The magic to me of Khris’ journey is that he just worked so friggin’ hard for it,” Burns said. “… He just kept working harder than anyone else I knew, and the fact that he’s made it happen for himself is really just all about his extraordinary tenacity and talent, and it’s just so exciting to watch.”

Burns added that Davis worked despite some who discouraged his dreams.

“One person said, ‘Forget about Broadway, it’s never going to happen.’” Davis said. “I’ve been on Broadway twice. Another person said, ‘Forget about it, you’re never leaving Philadelphia.’ Because I had gone to him for some advice. [Now] here I am in Los Angeles having a conversation with [The Inquirer].”

Davis heard the doubters and their words stung, though he said he holds no grudges today.

“But [Burns] always had my back and [Burns] always believed in me,” Davis said. “He’s one of the people in my life that I call my ‘angels,’ because there are certain people who did speak life into me along my journey.”

So, three times a week, Davis could be found on a bus or train to New York City, auditioning for roles.

In some ways, his journey parallels that of Foreman, whose comeback attempt was derided until he upset Michael Moorer in 1994 and became the oldest heavyweight champion in boxing history.

“A lot of people might feel like their current circumstances are the only circumstances they’re ever going to have,” Davis said. “They don’t believe that they can be freed from the framework of that. But it’s not true.”

Davis and Foreman appear to be the proof.