Suspension of disbelief… with a punch

WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev has debuted as an acting teacher. His first class, however, was somewhat spoiled by journalists, who turned the event into a media conference.

Valuev, better known for his formidable resilience on the ring and menacing height, recently starred in the film ‘Kamennaya Bashka’ (Stone Head) by Philip Yankovsky. Valuev played a boxer who has problems with long-term memory after a car crash that killed his wife and thus cannot fight anymore. His sleazy manager hires a hooker to play his dead beloved and bring the boxer back to the ring.

It seems Valuev’s movie experience impressed him so much that he is going to follow an acting career, which he told student actors during a master class in St. Petersburg. The Russian giant gathered them along with a crowd of journalists to share his skills learned during the shooting of Stone Head.

The class however was somewhat disappointing for Valuev, he said, as it quickly drifted to an run-of-the-mill media conference. He promised to make another attempt after his second film hits the screen.

The acclaimed boxer may follow the footsteps of California’s ‘Governator’ – Arnold Schwarzenegger. After all, Arnie played tough-as-nail stone-faced guys in the first years of his acting career before switching to comedy parts – something Valuev has considered for himself.