Anthony Robles’s hero’s journey is brought to cinematic life by Jharrel Jerome in Unstoppable. The William Goldenberg-directed film chronicles Robles’s career as an amateur wrestler, from his state-wide successes in high school to his nationally recognized achievements in college, all the while he is attempting to fulfill the fatherly role of his household for his mother and his siblings.

Unstoppable represents Jerome’s biggest role to date. He first broke out as a member of the ensemble of Moonlight, 2016’s Best Picture winner, and joined the ever-expansive Spider-Verse world in 2023, voicing Miles G. Morales in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse‘s final scene. He is set to have a pronounced role in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.

In celebration of Unstoppable‘s streaming premiere on Prime Video, ScreenRant spoke with Jerome and Robles to discuss the film’s depiction of the mother-son dynamic, the ticking clock that amateur wrestlers have to succeed, Robles’s real-life reaction to receiving a full-ride scholarship from Arizona State University, and what’s next for Jerome in Beyond the Spider-Verse.

Anthony Robles Opens Up About Borrowing Strength From His Mother

“There were certain times where my mom was pulling me through it…”

ScreenRant: There’s a great picture that I always see circulating around about the relationship between a mother and their child, and it goes to show how you will give strength to your child, but also sacrifice some of your own strength. I feel like that really was true with you and your mom throughout your adolescence and into your college years, but I also feel like it went flip reverse. I feel like you lent your mom some of your strength and built her backup as well. Would you echo that sentiment?

Anthony Robles: Absolutely. I believe the film did a great job, a beautiful job of just portraying that relationship and how we drew strength from one another. We leaned on each other at certain moments, and in certain times, one of us stepped up that was stronger than the other and pulled the other one through the situation that we were dealing with. That was something that was very important to me that was captured was where my strength came from at times because it wasn’t always me just powering through. There were certain times where my mom was pulling me through it. She was just picking me back up saying, ‘Okay, go again. Get back out there.’ So absolutely, that was a special thing between my mom and I, that strength between each other.

Jharrel Jerome Praises “The Plight Of A Wrestler”

“You get into it for the pᴀssion and the craft…”

One of the lines, I feel like empowered that level of strength is, ‘I’m running out of time to be someone.’ Now, no one ever likes to put a ᴅᴇᴀᴅline on their goals. You never want to be told it’s too late to achieve your dreams. But I feel like having that ᴅᴇᴀᴅline for you, Anthony, and for your portrayal of Anthony, Jarrell, almost really motivated him. Do you feel like he drew extra strength by giving himself a hard ᴅᴇᴀᴅline to be who he wanted to be?

Jharrel Jerome: Yeah, absolutely. That’s sort of the plight of a wrestler. There’s a set ᴅᴇᴀᴅline for that sport. That’s why I appreciated the wrestling community so much with other sports. You could be in it for the pᴀssion, of course, but you might be in it for the money. Football, baseball, basketball, those are big buck sports, but wrestling’s not known for that. You don’t get into wrestling to go hope to be a multimillionaire. You get into it for the pᴀssion and the craft of it. And to be honest, I think the best wrestlers end up going back to their alma maters and making sure the next best wrestlers are coming. And to me, that’s the understanding that I got with wrestling and I just appreciate that so much more than learning how to wrestle. I learned what it means to be a wrestler and the confidence of a wrestler, and I think that was key.

Anthony Robles Reflects On Receiving Full-Ride Scholarship

“I just remember feeling so honored that they believed in me…”

Jarrell mentioned going back to your alma mater, your alma mater, ASU, took real good care of you. That moment when you got the full ride brought emotion out of me like hasn’t been brought out in many years in a movie theater. It was a very touching, monumental scene in the context of this movie. In real life, when that happened, walk me through your emotions that day.

Anthony Robles: I just remember just feeling so honored that they believed in me, that they were willing to stand behind me, and especially after our program got dropped and they brought it back, Arizona State presented me with this scholarship in a way. We had to rebuild that program all over again. And so they’re putting so much trust into me saying, ‘You are our guy. We want you at the forefront of it.’ And that was something that just to have that respect, to have that belief from them, it was truly an honor for me. And every time I put on that singlet, every time I put on that uniform and walked out there onto the wrestling mat, I felt like I was representing Arizona State. I felt like I was representing my family and my friends who had put their trust and belief in me, and that gave me extra confidence, an extra amount of power just mentally just to go out there and just give everything I had for those people to make ’em proud.

Jharrel Jerome Hasn’t Started Spider-Verse 3 Recordings

“I’m as much in the dark as you…”

I’m stoked for Spider-Verse 3. It was set over the summer that vocal production was going to begin at some point soon. Have you started recording your lines for the third movie?

Jharrel Jerome: I haven’t, but I also can’t really say so much more because that’s such a тιԍнт-knit ship. I don’t even know much. I’m as much in the dark as you, but I’m excited to get back into it and see what they’re thinking, especially involving my character. That was such a badᴀss twist to the last one.

About Unstoppable (2024)

Unstoppable is the inspiring true story of Anthony Robles (Jharrel Jerome) who was born with one leg but whose indomitable spirit and unbreakable resolve empowered him to defy the odds and pursue his dreams. With the unwavering love and support of his devoted mother Judy (Jennifer Lopez) and the encouragement of his coaches, Anthony fights through adversity to earn a spot on the Arizona State Wrestling team. But it will demand everything he has, physically and mentally, to achieve his ultimate quest to become an NCAA Champion.

Source: ScreenRant Plus