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LeBron James’ Hollywood Debut: The $140 Million Box Office Comedy “Trainwreck” Before His Michael Jordan Sequel

Published 05/13/2022, 10:00 AM EDT

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LeBron James is a global superstar and a household name in the NBA world. He is one of the few athletes to have more than 100 million followers on Instagram. His achievements on the field and off the field have been recorded numerous amounts of times. A player who has won four NBA championship rings along with four Final MVP awards, he is not someone who goes around unnoticed. He is one of the highest earning athletes in the world, and rightly so.

Now a veteran, James has been hyped up since before he came to the NBA. At 18, he was drafted straight from St. Vincent-St. Mary High School to his hometown franchise, the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was sort of magical that this took place. Since, then he has touched the stratosphere. He has now become a mainstream star, and has made multiple appearances in Hollywood films and with big celebrities.

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His first feature film role was in 2015’s “Trainwreck”.  He earlier appeared in his documentary, “More than a Game” in 2008 and the SpongeBob SquarePants documentary in 2009.

He also played himself in “Trainwreck”. Himself, in the sense, that it was more of a heightened version of James. Famous comedy director Judd Apatow helmed this movie.

LeBron James featured in Hollywood’s “Trainwreck”

via Imago

James acts a relatable friend to comic Bill Hader’s character, Dr. Aaron Conners. The latter was a sports doctor in the movie. Amy Schumer apparently casted him because he was the only NBA player she knew about.

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From the first scene itself, it shows how fiscally conservative he was. He drove forty minutes to retrieve some sunglasses from the male protagonist’s chamber.   From then on, he haggles over a brunch bill, calls sex as “making love”, sang the praises of Cuyahoga sunsets. He also offers dating advice in the form of a spoken-word monologue of Kanye West’s song “Gold Digger”.

His performance was filled with charisma and was funny, to boot. Since then, he has dabbled in Hollywood again with a Space Jam sequel last year. He couldn’t recapture the magic of neither his first acting role nor Michael Jordan’s first film.

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Watch this Story: Forbes Top 10 Richest Athletes List 2022: LeBron James, and Stephen Curry Make Headlines Yet Again With 7 figure Money Bags

Fans will still remember his role in “Trainwreck”. He was fun and loose, unlike what he has to be during the post-match press conferences.  After retirement, LeBron might just shift to acting full time. He certainly has the chops for it. No filmmaker will refuse it as well. It will be a thing looking forward to.

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Written by:

Aditya Kar

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Aditya Kar is an NBA writer for EssentiallySports. A holder of Bachelors and Masters degrees in History, he has been a fan of the NBA since 2011. He has a very keen interest in the stories that define the league and the sport.
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