When Aljamain Sterling decides to walk away from fighting, he might just make Hollywood his destination.
If you ask Aljamain Sterling’s detractors, they’ll tell you that the “Funk Master” made his acting debut at UFC 259 against Petr Yan. The review? An award-winning performance. Only instead of an Oscar or a Tony, he was awarded the UFC bantamweight championship.
In reality, Aljamain Sterling’s acting debut took place this year in a movie with MMA coach Din Thomas. Appearing on MMA Today on SiriusXM Fight Nation, the bantamweight champ opened up about the experience.
“I’m excited. This was my first movie, getting some actual speaking lines, and I think it’s just something to set myself up for after MMA when I do decide to hang ‘em up,” Sterling said. “And just to have that option and that flexibility…it’s entertainment, just like this is entertainment, what we do now. I enjoy it.”
The details of the movie are not yet known, but Sterling did say that he will not be in a leading role. Still, from this experience, he got to get a feel for his range as an actor. And there’s one thing in particular that he already knows he cannot do, contrary to common belief.
“For my role, I wouldn’t say it was as tough as you would think, maybe because it was just a couple of lines. I didn’t have to overact. I try to do it as natural as possible for the certain scenes that I was in. And I think it was easier for me to do a role like that opposed to me being like…obviously, the main guy has to do a lot more stuff, co-star, that type of thing. So I’m going to say that’s 100% way (harder) to do.
“I got to watch what some of these guys were doing, and to make yourself cry on cue multiple times, bruh, I don’t think I could ever do a role like that because I just don’t have that muscle exercise yet. I don’t know.”
Sterling would then emphasize that this project was not a one-off, and he already has a vision of the roles he’d like to land in the future.
“Eventually, I would like to get in those more challenging roles where: more with the facial expressions and the body mannerisms and that type of thing. I think that’s gonna make it a little bit more of an art form.”
Do you think Aljamain Sterling has the chops to make it as an actor?