Tim Nelson On His Role In Boxing's Big Bang Film – ‘I Don’t Have The Build Of A Boxer'

The 2025 boxing movie "Bang Bang" is generating a lot of talking points, as we preview this film. 

The movie is based on Bernard (Bang), an ex-boxing champion played by Tim Nelson. He lives a lonely life in Detroit, until his daughter Jen (Kathy Bates) drops off her teenage son, Justin (Finn Cole), for him to look after. Justin, a troubled young man, who cannot leave town due to a court order, puts the onus on Band to watch him. Bang decides to train him, hoping that his grandson’s success allows him to rewrite the wrongs of his past. Bang takes on the challenge of training the young boxer and reconnecting with his family. The film has been selected for release at some US theatres for September 12, 2025. Dern recalled the challenges involved in playing this role.

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"With Bang Bang, we were drawn to a powerfully written story filled with emotionally rich characters. Vincent Grashaw has crafted a film that poses a fascinating question: what happens to a larger-than-life athlete when their career ends? Tim Blake Nelson delivers what may be the most powerful performance of his already storied career,” Andrew Nerger (Sunrise’s head of U.S. and international distribution)

“I always try to keep myself three or four months away from whatever physical manifestations a role will demand. You’re an actor every day. You’re not just an actor when you’re working. You have to keep your body and your mindset in a state of readiness. It presented a balance beam act for me as an actor. Conversely, he also needs to be liked by the audience at some level.

“When we made the film I was 58 years old, and so I effectively have the raw material to be past my prime no matter how good of shape I was in. I’m small, and I don’t weigh much and I don’t have the natural build of a boxer, so I very much had to become that. It’s [about] the familial, environmental, and genetic forces that conspire to make it so. What we do to each other and how it can mar us — and, in particular, men,” Nelson said 

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