‘Don’t let Hulu fool you’: Mike Tyson doesn’t want you to watch new show about his life
Mike Tyson is the subject of a new Hulu scripted series, and he’s really not happy about it.
The famed boxer’s life is at the center of the upcoming TV show “Mike,” which debuts Aug. 25. Trevante Rhodes, who played Chiron in the 2016 movie “Moonlight,” will star as Tyson — but its subject says he didn’t sign off on the eight-episode limited series.
“Don’t let Hulu fool you,” Tyson wrote Saturday on Instagram. “I don’t support their story about my life. It’s not 1822, it’s 2022. They stole my life story and didn’t pay me. To Hulu executives I’m just a n— they can sell on the auction block.”
Mike Tyson, 54, rediscovered his passion for boxing during quarantine. He’s returning to the ring Saturday for an exhibition against Roy Jones Jr.
In a separate post the same day, Tyson alleged Hulu tried to get UFC president Dana White to promote the series but White turned it down out of respect for Tyson.
“Hulu tried to desperately pay my brother Dana White millions without offering me a dollar to promote their slave master take over story about my life,” Tyson wrote. “He turned it down because he honors friendship and treating people with dignity. I’ll never forget what he did for me just like I’ll never forget what Hulu stole from me.”
Lily James, who plays ‘Baywatch’ star Pamela Anderson in Hulu’s ‘Pam & Tommy,’ reached out to Anderson in an effort ‘to play Pamela authentically.’ No dice.
At the Television Critics Assn. press tour last week, “Mike” showrunner Karin Gist explained the series’ intent.
“We just wanted to tell an unbiased story and have the audience decide what they think or feel,” Gist said. “Whether you like him or hate him, does the story make you question how complicit society has been? That was the intention, that was the North Star for the writers’ room as we were crafting stories.”
It’s not the first time in recent memory that the subject of a scripted series has slammed the project. Pamela Anderson reportedly was not pleased about Hulu’s “Pam & Tommy,” which explored her relationship (and sex tape) with Tommy Lee, and did not participate in the recent series.
The network on Tuesday defended the series, which portrays the Lakers great as hot-tempered and moody. West’s attorney fired back.
In April, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar penned a lengthy article about HBO’s “Winning Time,” dismissing the series as “deliberately dishonest” and “drearily dull.”
“The characters are crude stick-figure representations that resemble real people the way Lego Hans Solo resembles Harrison Ford,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote. “Each character is reduced to a single bold trait as if the writers were afraid anything more complex would tax the viewers’ comprehension.”
NBA legend Jerry West also demanded a retraction of the series, saying it was “cruel” and “deliberately false.”
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