On the surface, I was there to discuss with Epps his new boxing movie Against the Ropes costarring Meg Ryan and directed by Charles S. Dutton. A fictionalized look at the life of female boxing promoter Jackie Kallen, the actor plays Cleveland hooligan Luther Shaw, a young man with a troubled past who just might have what it takes to be a boxing champion.

In a wide-ranging career, sports-themed films have been Omar’s bread and butter, staples allowing him to build his resume and bring home a solid paycheck. When I asked him about this, the actor couldn’t happen to laugh. “I really don’t know how this happened, I’m not the biggest dude. I’m 5’10”, buck-seventy, maybe. But then, each experience has offered something different in regards to story. Before this film, I really didn’t want to do anymore sports films, that was something I had spoken about with my team. And then, this comes along. How could I not take the opportunity?”

But what was it exactly that drew Epps to Luther? What made him want to play this character for, on the surface, he doesn’t look all that interesting, even bordering on the stereotypical. “The thing that jumped off the paper to me was that he was obviously this young, black guy from the [hood] – you know, it’s the cliché – but his point of view on things, he didn’t have a chip on his shoulder, he was responsible for himself. He didn’t have this thing about the world being at fault, or what have you, and I thought that was refreshing from a character from that world. And then, of course, I’m an avid boxing fan, so that was an attraction as well. And to work with Meg Ryan, to work with Charles Dutton again, and I just thought the story was great. I had known about Jackie Kallen’s boxers [like Thomas ‘Hit Man’ Hearns] but I had no idea they were managed by a woman.”

With only a month and a half to get ready for one of the most physically taxing roles of his varied career, Epps and director Dutton had only one goal in mind: make the boxing real. “It was crazy. [Training] was five hours a day, just constant boxing, like Boxing 101. I’m a fan of the sport, and my eagerness and desire was there, but I had never worked out that f***ing hard. It was crazy. Just watching tapes, staying overtime in the gym, just being as physically prepared as I could be.”

Based on that, how does the boxing match up compared to other seminal films about the sport like Rocky and Ali? “You know, Rocky is the quintessential boxing film, but technically when you look at the boxing it sucks. Guys in the boxing gyms completely [think] that’s a misrepresentation of boxing. They look at it like that. So we wanted to up the ante, we wanted to set a new standard with [the boxing]. In order to create that, I had to get in there and take some shots, and really just let it hang loose. We had to be able to just go in there and throw them sometimes, just because we weren’t getting what we wanted. So, to let it feel real, sometimes it had to be real.”

“Getting hit was funny. One of my most memorable experiences was the first time I got hit by a jab and how it shook from the top of my spine to my Achilles tendon. And my trainer was like, ‘Come on – you got to be kidding me,’ and I was like, ‘no, man, let me go take a break – that hurt.’ But, like, everyday brought something new and it was great.”

Acting isn’t all Omar’s about these days, however. He has his own record label BKNYC Records whose website www.bknycrecords.com has just recently gone live featuring musicians from the label. He’s also an accomplished writer himself, currently putting the finishing touches on his own screenplay which he hopes to start shooting soon. “I’ve been writing since I was a kid. Short stories, poetry, and all of that, and acting is just an extension of that. It just came naturally. So [now] it’s coming full circle.”

“If somebody [had] told me when I was twelve, ‘You know, you can make a living doing this,’ I would [have] wrote for a living. Writing is the beast unto itself. I mean, ‘the end’ could not be two better words to want to write. Every time I look at a blank piece of paper I can’t wait to be at the end already, but, you know what, [writing] is one of the most gratifying things to do in the world. I feel that it has really kept me sane and given me depth as an actor because I understand story, and it helps me understand the world around me, and outside of me, in terms of being actor. And what you understand that knack, then your brilliance can come through. I’m still trying to master that craft.”