00:00The pulse of the city was hard, fast, and growing.
00:07And anybody with any sense or any vision could see that Atlanta was going to be what it became.
00:14The new Peacock limited series Fight Night, the Million Dollar Heist,
00:18is based on a true story about an armed robbery that occurred on the night of Muhammad Ali's 1970 comeback fight in Atlanta.
00:24The series explores how Atlanta became the black mecca of the United States.
00:27Atlanta has pushed all her 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 Cheadle, Chloe Bailey, and Sin Qua 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,
00:51opened up about his memories surrounding the historic fight that took place in the city while he lived there.
00:56Yeah, I couldn't afford to buy a ticket to the fight, and I didn't know anybody was throwing the 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,
01:10and Craig Brewer, also producer, our director for the first two and last two episodes,
01:14called me very passionate about me being a part of it.
01:18I was the last person cast.
01:21I had worked with everybody else in this cast, you know, not Dexter, who plays Ali,
01:24but Taraji and Terrence and Sam and Kevin.
01:27And I was excited about seeing, you know, what we would all do together under one roof, so to speak.
01:35Cheadle portrays real person J.D. Hudson,
01:37who was one of the first black detectives in Atlanta's desegregated police force.
01:41The actor revealed why he thinks Hudson continued to work with the police department,
01:45despite the injustices he and the black community were experiencing at the time.
01:49Well, I think for him, he saw that the only way out was through, you know.
01:53Quitting was not an option.
01:54Stepping back was not an option.
01:56Trying to force, you know, things into the world the way he wanted them to be was the only way to work.
02:02And I think he saw himself rightfully as being someone who would hold the door open and let others come in behind him
02:12and would take the, you know, bear the brunt of what that institutionalized racism was that he was dealing with
02:20to hopefully get to the other side where there would be more representation,
02:25greater justice for people who look like him and came from the communities that 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 in,
02:43and I was like, okay, 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 much, Khloe?
02:54Like, 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,
03:05and the fact that they've touched so many different pinnacles in their career,
03:08that they could have so much humility, that they could be so supportive,
03:11they could be so gracious, so giving, was amazing.
03:15You know, to watch each person has defined a 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 it continued to continuously grow as an artist.
03:25In 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.
03:41And anybody 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
03:55because, you know, that's valuable.
03:57That was like platinum.
03:58It wasn't gold.
03:59It was platinum.
04:00You know, so the idea that he had, you know, 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 dirt, you know.
04:14So, yeah, we're owed that.
04:17And she was right.
04:17Fight Night The Million Dollar Heist is now streaming on Peacock.
04:21This is The Hollywood Reporter News.
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