SHAKING UP THE WORLD
Sam Cooke, who came together in a motel room to celebrate Clay winning the heavyweight championship while also discussing their needs for social, racial and political change. With a running time of approximately six hours, this latest version was a much more ambitious undertaking than any of the above. The pressure of bringing to life a charismatic, influential and revered global icon like Ali for a major television series was enormous. Get it right and you’re home free. Get it wrong and both Ali fans and critics would be the ones throwing the
realized that this could actually turn into the most rewarding experience of my career.” When Watkins accepted the Ali project, he was already critically acclaimed in his field, having served as a creator/writer on two successful television shows: Burn Notice (2007- 2013) and Hand of God (2014-2017). He also directed the first two episodes of The Greatest . Jaalen Best, the actor who portrays Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali from ages 18 to 22, is just getting started in the business and has minimal acting credits. Can you imagine the pressure
is the right choice in so many ways … in ways you don’t even know,’” Watkins explained. “What she meant by that was that he seemed to be capturing the essence of Ali.” Given the ultimate seal of approval, the young actor immersed himself in “The Greatest” around the clock. “I would put on a loop interview from when he was young Cassius Clay, and replay it and replay it,” Best told me regarding his preparation. “I would sit down and try to mimic everything he did, from hand gestures to facial expressions to jokes. I did it so much, I could cut off the sound, go straight
element as Jaalen Best? I had to marry the two together.” Clay’s main antagonist is Charles “Sonny” Liston, the menacing, enigmatic and ill-fated heavyweight champion of the world, who is played brilliantly by versatile actor Amin Joseph. While Best had countless hours of Ali interviews to peruse, Joseph was tasked with bringing to life a legendary but mysterious boxing figure who often shunned the media and was monosyllabic in his delivery when they did track him down. The lack of material on Liston only served as motivation.
he was able to mail a memento to her. “That was the challenge with this. I had to peel through the way he was portrayed in the media to find out things about the man. I could build up the character from there and have a true three-dimensional portrayal of him. He was a loving man; he was humorous; he was sexy; he was whimsical; he was all of these other things. This was a man who loved his children (Liston had one adopted son), that was silly, that could play bagpipes and put on a kilt and have fun. Even if you look at some of the hijinks that he and Clay did, [like]
opined Best, who has watched the fight countless times. “The way he was bouncing around Sonny Liston, the way he’s throwing these jabs. He stood in that fight, and that’s what I think a true hero is. I can’t fathom the feelings that were going through his mind and his body. The greatest athlete of all time, in my opinion.” When you look back at Liston-Clay with modern eyes, it does retain a timeless quality. The main fights covered in this series are Clay’s Olympic final triumph over Zbigniew [Ziggy] Pietrzykowski, his pro debut against Tunney Hunsaker, the big scare against English hero
knockout blows. “I was reluctant to engage because Muhammad Ali was such a hero of mine,” series creator and writer Ben Watkins told me. “I was a little intimidated by the prospect of trying to tell the story because I knew how much he meant to me. I wouldn’t want to get it wrong because I know how much he means to the world. “But I also play by an edict, and I give other writers this advice: Do the thing that scares you. This was one of those moments when I had to take my own advice; engage and do the process, even though I was afraid. I also
on him? On the plus side, Best has the looks, the size, the athleticism, the charisma and – as you’ll soon find out – the acting chops to pull off the role of a lifetime. The North Carolina native is as convincing playing Cassius Clay outside the ring as he is inside it and truly delivers. On more than one occasion, even in repose, Best had me doing a double take or going back to watch a scene again. He’s that good. Following multiple auditions and in-person meetings, the final decision on Best’s casting was made by Ali’s widow, Lonnie Ali. “I flew him to Louisville, she texted me and said, ‘He
through it and know exactly what he was going to say. It was second nature. “With the boxing side, I had a coach [Rob Salley], a superfan of Muhammad Ali who had grown up during that time period as a fan and had watched him train. He would show me different depictions of what they were looking for when it came to my jab or my footwork. He would send me homework: ‘Break down this video and tell me everything you see.’ A large focus was on [Ali’s] relaxation, how fluid his motions were, just him in his element. How can I do all these things but make it fluid and be in my
“That was the gift for me,” Joseph explained. “With Sonny Liston, a lot of the biographies are written about him as a pariah. The way the media promoted the fights was to make him the villain and an antihero. Most of the literature was ‘Sonny, the boy who would be king,’ ‘The Bear’ or ‘Sonny Liston the devil.’ It was difficult to peruse through that and find the humanity, the father, the son, the juvenile delinquent, the young man that was fearful, the young man that loved his mother and called her when he won the heavyweight championship. She didn’t want to be there in person, but
when they were at the casino and he pulled out a cap pistol, Sonny Liston was in on the joke sometimes.” When it comes to the Liston-Clay showdown, which took place at the Miami Beach Convention Center on February 25, 1964, one can make a solid case that it was the best fight that Muhammad Ali ever fought. When you consider the competition, the skill on display, the 6-to-1 odds against him and the fact that he had to survive a full round against Liston with limited vision, producing his TKO 7 triumph was one of the finest wins in boxing history. “It was extraordinary,”
Henry Cooper and, of course, Liston. Any hardcore fight fan will notice that a diligent attempt has been made to replicate the real-life action. “We punch for punch, parry for parry learned the choreography of the entire fight. Although that was nuanced and a bit difficult, it made us free during the actual filming because it was almost like a dance,” said Joseph, who boxed as an amateur in his youth. “You can see Jaalen Best is a great dance partner. All the stuff that I learned early with boxing was years ago. I’m a man of a different age now.” Toward the end of production, Joseph revealed to the crew
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