Boban Marjanovic has undeniably amazed fans with his remarkable performance as well as his physique. He got drafted into the NBA in 2015 after being picked up by the San Antonio Spurs. Since then he has been a key player of every team’s jersey that he donned. Furthermore, in 2019, he surprised himself as well as his fans when he got cast in the movie ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’.
It was a relatively unconventional career line that Marjanovic took up as he did not have the experience or interest in acting or martial arts. However, fate played a role, and he landed in the cast. This was only the start as fans saw him in Hustle released in 2022, and Self Reliance which came out this year.
When they haven’t seen me in John Wick 3: 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
— Boban Marjanovic (@BobanMarjanovic) October 13, 2021
Furthermore, the way he got in the cast of John Wick 3 is as interesting as it could be. The director Chad Stahelski was trying to find the best fit when the producer Basil Iwanyk gave a suggestion. Iwanyk is a huge basketball fan, and so on was aware of Marjanovic. Stahelski narrated the story, “He was like, ‘Dude, I got it.’ I’m like, ‘Whatta ya got?”
He continued, “He goes, ‘You need Boban.’ And I’m like, ‘Great. What’s a Boban?”. What followed was Iwanyk making Stahelski watch a YouTube video of Marjanovic. Stahelski revealed that he thought “East European kind of vibe,” however, the lack of experience made him turn down this option.
Boban Marjanovic is the tallest active NBA player
The director went into detail about how his mind changed from “Yeah, no. I’ll pass”, to eventually casting Boban Marjanovic in John Wick 3. He revealed that he initially told Iwanyk that “He’s not an actor. Not a stunt person. I need somebody that’s going to do the opening fight scene of John Wick 3. So there are some expectations there, with a guy that’s never been on camera or done stunts before. I’m like, ‘Yeah, no. I’ll pass“.
However, after giving it a thought, he decided to give it a shot. In his own words, “I was like, ‘Ah well, fuck it. Let’s talk to him. Let’s have my stunt guys give him an assessment”. They had the tallest active NBA player flew to New York to meet the stunt team. After a couple of days, Marjanovic was able to woo the action choreographers with his brilliant skills.
The team had reactions like, “He’s awesome. We should do this”, “Very athletic”, and “A really big heart”. The Houston Rockets player worked his charm on the stunt team as he does on his fans. Being cast opposite Keanu Reeves was surely a milestone that the NBA star did not see coming.
Notably, the director’s quest of “Let’s get the biggest guy we can find” so that the scene of a tall guy in the supertight space comes to life. The movie was surely a hit at the box office and the reviews are surely an indication that casting Boban Marjanovic was the right decision.