00:00The pulse of the city was hard, fast, and growing, and anybody with any sense or any
00:10vision could see that Atlanta was going to be what it became.
00:15The new Peacock limited series Fight Night, The Million Dollar Heist, is based on a true
00:18story about an armed robbery that occurred on the night of Muhammad Ali's 1970 comeback
00:23fight in Atlanta.
00:24The series explores how Atlanta became the Black Mecca of the United States.
00:27Atlanta has pushed all their chips in, this will turn our little city into a major one.
00:32We are a vibrant, inclusive city that's open for business.
00:36Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Hart headline a star-studded cast that also includes Don
00:39Cheadle, Chloe Bailey, and Sin-Kwa-Walls, among others.
00:43Several members of the cast spoke to The Hollywood Reporter all about working on the new show.
00:47Jackson, who graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta in the early 1970s, opened up about
00:52his memories surrounding the historic fight that took place in the city while he lived
00:56there.
00:57I couldn't afford to buy a ticket to the fight and I didn't know anybody was throwing a party
01:01so I wasn't in there but I knew people who were.
01:03Meanwhile, Cheadle shared how he got involved in the project.
01:06This was something that Kevin and Will Packer produced it and Craig Brewer, also producer
01:11and director for the first two and last two episodes, called me very passionate about
01:18me being a part of it.
01:19I was the last person cast.
01:21I had worked with everybody else in this cast, you know, not Dexter who plays Ali, but Taraji
01:25and Terrence and Sam and Kevin.
01:28And I was excited about seeing, you know, what we would all do together under one roof,
01:34so to speak.
01:35Cheadle portrays real person J.D. Hudson, who was one of the first Black detectives
01:39in Atlanta's desegregated police force.
01:41The actor revealed why he thinks Hudson continued to work with the police department, despite
01:45the injustices he and the Black community were experiencing at the time.
01:48Well, I think for him, he saw that the only way out was through, you know, quitting was
01:53not an option.
01:54Coming back was not an option.
01:56Trying to force, you know, things into the world the way he wanted them to be was the
02:01only way to work.
02:02And I think he saw himself rightfully as being someone who would hold the door open and let
02:11others come in behind him and would take the, you know, bear the brunt of what that institutionalized
02:18racism was that he was dealing with to hopefully get to the other side where there would be
02:23more representation, greater justice for people who look like him and came from communities
02:29that he came from.
02:30Bailey and Walls also appear in the series.
02:33They opened up about what it was like working with Jackson, Cheadle and Hart.
02:36It was amazing.
02:38I remember trying to pump myself up before specific scenes that I knew they would be
02:43in and I was like, OK, you can do this.
02:46You can hold your own.
02:48You got this.
02:49And, you know, actually doing it after the fact, I was like, why are you stressing so
02:54much, Khloe?
02:55Like, everyone just made it feel so comfortable and warm and welcoming on set.
03:00Being able to watch all these different actors that I look up to, that we look up to, and
03:06the fact that they've touched so many different pinnacles in their career, that they could
03:09have so much humility, that they could be so supportive, they could be so gracious,
03:12so giving, was amazing.
03:15You know, to watch each person is to find the lane for themselves and how they did that
03:19and how they do that with grace and intention is just something that I just took for myself
03:23as a continued, continuously grow as an artist.
03:26In the series, Jackson plays New York gangster Frank Moten.
03:29When asked if he envisioned back in the 1970s that Atlanta would become what it is today,
03:33the actor said this.
03:34The pulse of the city was hard, fast and growing.
03:42Anybody with any sense or any vision could see that Atlanta was going to be what it became.
03:48It became what Frank's vision was.
03:51And he had the right idea when he wanted that land over there by the airport, because that's
03:56valuable, that was like platinum, it wasn't gold, it was platinum.
04:01So the idea that he had, he understood it.
04:04And he understood that because his grandmother told him that they had a legacy that was theirs,
04:10that red clay, you know, that's our blood in that, in that dirt, you know, so yeah,
04:16we're owed that.
04:17And she was right.
04:18Fight Night The Million Dollar Heist is now streaming on Peacock.
04:21This is The Hollywood Reporter News.
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