Mick Foley made a recent appearance in a WWE video, where he shared the story of how he initially believed the Mankind character was meant for another person. Here are the highlights:
First seeing the character:
“I still remember my first meeting with Mr. McMahon, when he showered me a piece of artwork that was on the table. I thought that it was artwork designed for a new character for Max Payne. It looked like The Man In The Iron Mask, the Alex Dumas story later portrayed in the motion picture by Leonardo DiCaprio. It was probably an hour into our talk before he showed me that illustration and said it was for me. My first thought was, won’t this cover up my facial expressions? Mr. McMahon said, ‘It’s going to augment them.’”
Deciding to go with the role:
“At the end of those conversations, I thought, I’m going to give this a try. Not only a try, I’m going to put everything I have into this character and I’m going to try and make it as different as I can from Cactus Jack. There will be a little carry over in the move set, but I’m going to have him speak differently, act differently, walk differently, feel differently.”
https://youtu.be/BahE2IpVptw
(H/T to Fightful for the quotes)
