From alien warfare to playing Carl Weathers, Stephan James wants to keep you guessing

Stephan James poses for a portrait as he promotes the Netflix movie "War Machine," in Toronto on Thursday, March 5, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO — When Stephan James sat down to read the script for Netflix sci-fi action flick “War Machine,” he wasn’t prepared for a full cardio workout.

“My heart was racing the entire time,” the Scarborough, Ont.-born actor says. “I was sweating. The energy was very palpable in the script.”

For an actor known for prestige dramas and complex portrayals of historical figures, his latest role in the testosterone-fuelled, explosion-happy romp is a departure — and one he chose carefully.

“People are sort of used to seeing me in a certain thing: dramatic, highbrow, art-house-type films. A lot of films where I’m playing real people,” says James, who broke out in the mid-2010s with acclaimed performances in dramas “Race” and “If Beale Street Could Talk.”

“I think the goal of an actor is to always be able to keep people on their toes. Throw them off, do something different. That’s how you avoid being typecast and that’s how you survive for 30 or 40 years.”

In the Patrick Hughes-helmed “War Machine,” streaming Friday, James stars alongside Alan Ritchson and Dennis Quaid as members of an elite military unit whose training mission spirals into a fight for survival against an otherworldly, robotic threat — like a Transformer with a very bad attitude.

For James, playing a character known only as 7 who spends much of the film wounded, the challenge was finding emotional depth inside the chaos.

“You have to ask, ‘How can I be useful even when I’m not doing anything?’ I put a lot of work into building the layers of Seven. We don’t even really know his name,” explains the Golden Globe-nominated actor.

“What level of humanity can I give him so that people feel him past this number?”

With war currently rippling across the Middle East, releasing a militaristic film might seem like tricky timing. But James insists “War Machine” was never meant to mirror reality.

“This film, if anything, provides a level of escapism. We’re dealing with something that’s clearly not real,” he says.

“We’re just making a movie.”

Of course, it’s never quite that simple.

With a steady stream of offers, James notes he’s become more selective about his roles — especially while staying busy with his non-profit B.L.A.C.K. Canada and production company Bay Mills Studios, both co-founded with his brother Shamier Anderson.

“That’s scary too, right?” he says. “You say no to something because you think it’s not the right fit — until you see another actor do it and think, ‘Ah, dang, rats! That would have been cool.’

“You just have to go with your gut.”

Later this year, James will star opposite Anthony Ippolito in “I Play Rocky,” an Amazon MGM Studios film about the making of the 1977 best picture winner “Rocky.” Directed by Peter Farrelly, the drama sees James portray Carl Weathers, who played Apollo Creed opposite Sylvester Stallone in the boxing franchise.

“I got the script and I was blown away by how great it was. It gave me all the nostalgia of watching the ‘Rocky’ movie way back when. It was just that heart, that spirit that’s been around now for 50 years,” he shares.

Stepping into the role required serious preparation. James spent nearly three months training twice a day, starting with several hours of boxing in the morning before hitting the gym for weight training.

“I got into pretty impressive shape, if I do have to toot my own horn a little,” he says with a laugh. “You guys will see.”

The cultural weight of the character is not lost on him.

“Carl Weathers, he’s one of the pioneers. I mean ‘Action Jackson,’ what he represented for just a Black leading man was always really dope,” he says.

“You see all the ‘Creed’ movies that have spawned just from his story, so you understand how important he is to pop culture. It felt like big shoes to step into, but nothing I wasn’t ready for.”

Even as James’ Hollywood career expands, he stays deeply connected to his roots. With initiatives like The Black Academy and “The Legacy Lounge” series on CBC, he and Anderson continue to support Canada’s under-represented creative communities.

The brothers are also bringing it back home for “Hate the Player: The Ben Johnson Story,” a Scarborough-shot miniseries starring Anderson as the controversial Canadian sprinter, developed by Bay Mills Studios and New Metric Media.

“It’s an ultimate Scarborough story, and so it was important for us to be authentic with it,” James says of the series, which he executive produced and premieres on Paramount Plus this month.

Their company is named after Bay Mills Boulevard, the street they grew up on that’s been described as “at-risk.”

“We took all the narratives that were associated with that area as children, and we were able to flip that on its head and associate it with creation, with art,” says James.

As he plots his next moves, James says he ultimately approaches the bigger picture with a sense of gratitude — even for the parts that can’t be scripted.

“Sometimes your story is going to write itself. You can’t control every sentence, every paragraph, every page of it. And so, I’ve just been riding the waves.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2026.

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press