Liev Schreiber Takes A Beating For ‘The Bleeder’

Liev Schreiber and his real life wife Naomi Watts come together in The Bleeder to tell the true story of Chuck Wepner, who made boxing history for going 15 rounds against Muhammad Ali in 1975 for the world’s heavyweight title. While Schreiber and Watts may have had their own romance to draw upon in playing their characters in The Bleeder, that isn’t the only example of reality bleeding into the film. Schreiber reveals that his boxing sequences weren’t as simulated as fans might assume, pointing out that the punches were real and he insisted on taking them himself. All 800 of them.

The Bleeder Casts Liev And Naomi As Lovers

Chuck Wepner’s story of struggle and tenacity inspired Sylvester Stallone to create Rocky in 1976 and now, 40 ears later, Liev Schreiber is acting out the true story of the man behind the myth. The Hollywood Reporter reveals that The Bleeder is a story of alcoholism, drug addiction, and womanizing, but going even deeper, it’s also a story about personal redemption and taking the chance to prove oneself.

What may be surprising is that Naomi Watts had an opportunity to play the housewife to Liev’s Wepner, but she instead opted to play the boxer’s outside love interest. Playing the other woman isn’t something Watts has experienced before, and she says she welcomed the new opportunity for The Bleeder, but she also chose the lesser role, because she felt playing an on screen married couple with Schreiber would have negatively impacted the film.

“I also felt that being a real-life couple and then playing a couple can be distracting sometimes,” says Watts.” So I felt the role with less screen time was better for the story.”

Liev Schreiber shares his opinion that Naomi made the right decision for The Bleeder.

“Linda couldn’t be further from her. And the first time I saw her walk out of the make-up trailer with the red wig and the fake boobs and the leopard-print tights, I knew it was going to be f—ing awesome.”

Liev Schreiber Dishes On His Reasons For Taking Real Punches For The Bleeder

It’s estimated in a Variety article that Liev Screiber took at least 800 real punches to make the boxing matches in The Bleeder seem that much more authentic. Some might argue that taking such a beating is just too much to ask for the sake of realism in a film, but Liev didn’t feel that way at all. Schreiber says he has always disliked boxing movies for the way the choreographed matches simulate punches that are supposed to be real, so that wasn’t something he wanted to repeat for The Bleeder. He felt strongly that the punches in The Bleeder should be real.

“I was really interested in finding a way to make the fighting feel real. I think Scorsese [in Raging Bull] did something brilliant by abstracting it, by making it into a ballet, or operatic. But I kind of feel like most fight films have been either trying to reproduce that, or doing the typical old choreography,” explains Mr. Schreiber.

“I was in the gym boxing and I watched two guys sparring: they were hitting each other, but they weren’t really hurting each other. They were working without head gear, and they had so much control, making and controlling the contact. And I thought: ‘That’s how I want to do it.'”

It was for this reason that Schreiber chose Pooch Hall to play Muhammed Ali in The Bleeder. Liev reveals that he has been sparring with Hall for years and that the two of them have developed a strong rapport over that time, making the choreographing of the boxing sequences in The Bleeder flow that much more seamlessly.

“It was great, for the first two days. On the third day I started forgetting where I was,” says The Bleeder star.

The Bleeder hits theaters on January 21, 2017.

[Image by Campbell Grobman Films]