So I‘m watching The Fighter, and at some point in the film Sugar Ray Leonard, playing himself, shows up during a scene where our hero Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) has a pretty brutal bout. Now, it’s already been established that Micky’s troubled brother Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), who was himself once a boxer, fought Sugar Ray long ago, and even knocked him down. So Sugar Ray is already kind of a motif in the film, and we’re wondering if he’s going to recognize Dicky, who is Micky’s trainer. And, of course, famous and recognizable athletes playing themselves in such films – be they serious dramas or comedies or biopics or whatever – is pretty common, like when Brett Favre showed up at the end of There’s Something About Mary.
