'Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist' Cast Talk Working on the Peacock Limited Series | THR News Video
The new Peacock limited series 'Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist' is based on a true story about an armed robbery that occurred on the night of Muhammad Ali's 1970 comeback fight in Atlanta. Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Hart headline a star-studded cast that also includes Don Cheadle, Chloe Bailey and Sinqua Walls, among others. Several members of the cast spoke to The Hollywood Reporter all about working on the Peacock limited series.
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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.