movies

According to reports, Smith spent approximately a whole year learning everything about Muhammad Ali. That included boxing lessons for seven hours a day, studying Islamic and learning a new dialect. The hard work earned him an Oscar nomination.

Leto already had the advantage of resembling long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine, but the actor also successfully pulled off this role by immersing himself in the runner's life and adopting the Prefontaine's upright running style.

This film, directed by Ron Howard, focused on the rivalry between Formula 1 drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda during the 1976 Formula One motor-racing season. Chris Hemsworth earned critical praise for his role in the film, but Brühl was the one who walked away with nominations from the British Academy Film and Screen Actors Guild.

While on the set of 'The Godfather Part II,' De Niro read the autobiography of boxer Jake LaMotta, and became fascinated with the character. It's considered to be one of the acclaimed actor's greatest roles.

This 2013 movie didn't make a huge splash at the box office, but up-and-comer Chadwick Boseman impressed critics with his portrayal of Jackie Robinson (alongside Harrison Ford as coach Branch Rickey), the first African-American to break the baseball color barrier.  

Today's news that Margot Robbie has been cast as scandalous American figure skater, Tonya Harding, in the upcoming film, I, Tonya,got us thinking about <a href=/articles/2016/02/stephan-james-jesse-ownes-race-movie-interview>biopics based on athletes</a>. It's too soon to tell if The Wolf of Wall StreetandSuicide Squadstar will light up the silver screen as she gracefully flies across the ice while (fingers crossed) rocking some excessively voluminous '90s hair, but hopefully she'll join this ranking of the top portrayals of <a href=/articles/2014/02/gold-medal-eating>elite athletes</a> in film. And before we get to the list, a couple of other questions: Who'll play Nancy Kerrigan? And why aren't there more biopics about female athletes?

Best athlete portrayals in film

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