Say an actor was playing the role of a boxer. Starting from scratch, how long would it take to get the aesthetics of boxing down? How long would it take for the actor to be able to at least somewhat convincingly fake it? Hilary Swank didn't look bad at all in 'Million Dollar Baby', and Will Smith didn't look bad in 'Ali'. Not sure how much camera angles and editing had to do with that, though.
According to Jack Dempsey's book , it takes 3-6 months to master the mechanics of straight punches under proper guidance. And there are so many other things... What do you mean by not bad? Not bad in what? Hitting speed bag and rope jumping? This is not boxing per ce... In some scene Will Smith was against James Toney, who was playing Joe Fraiser, this guy was a lot more "not bad" as an actor than Will Smith as a boxer
The best I've ever seen a boxer look in a film was Daniel Day-Lewis in "the boxer" and I think he was trained by McGuigan or his brother (the film was based to a small degree on McGuigan) for about 18months.
And Daniel Day-Lewis takes dedication for the role to a whole new level. Robert De Niro had a few boxing matches when he was preparing for Raging Bull. He won a couple, too.
I mean they looked relatively natural in the fight scenes, not like people who never stepped in a ring.
I see. These were was not real fight, I mean spontaneous action. These scenes were set-up. Provided you are in a reasonable physical shape, I guess you need a couple weeks of rehearsal maximum
I reckon a week depending how much time they have - its not hard if your trainer says the right things and you listen/practise.
Yeah he's a true method actor. You can see when hes shadowboxing and doing stuff in the gym how natural and comfortable he is, the fights themselves are pretty much the same as any boxing movie. Thats more about Choreography though isn't it. I have had a few fights but I would probably be worse in a fight scene than an actor/choreographer.
Specially for people who never heard of search engines... http://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/survival/Dempsey, Jack - Championship Fighting.pdf