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The cast and crew of 'One Night in Miami' discuss race in America

Kemp Powers and Regina King, the writer and director of One Night in Miami, respectively, along with the cast, discuss race in America and why this film is so timely.

Video transcript

- Don't you think it's about time to party?

- Tonight is a chance for us to reflect.

- You mean, no one else is coming?

- Well, this is all to a hopping start.

KEVIN POLOWY: This film is based on an incredible stage play by a man named Kemp Powers, who also happens to be you. Take us back to the beginning for a minute. How did you first hear of this meeting between these four men, and what motivated you to write your account of it?

KEMP POWERS: This was based on a true night. In my, you know, my previous life, I was journalist for 17 years, and I think it was probably 15 years ago when I was-- I've always considered each of these four men, they were all, always inspirational figures to me.

I mean, Malcolm X is kind of like the patron saint of my generation. Who doesn't look up to Ali? Sam Cook was personally a person that I-- always been one of my favorite artists. Jim Brown, the work he's done, not just in sports but outside of sports, with Amer-I-Can, and these were always very inspirational figures. And I knew about the relationship between Malcolm and Ali, which has been pretty well documented.

But it was back about 15 years ago, I was reading a great book on the intersection between pro sports and the civil rights movement, and there was just one paragraph that mentioned this night, said, February 25, 1964. Cassius beats Sonny Liston. No one thought he was going to win, so no party was planned. So he went back to Malcolm X's room in the still segregated, Black part of Miami, with, spent a night in quiet conversation with Malcolm, Jim Brown, and Sam Cook. And the next morning is when he announced that he was in the Nation of Islam.

So that was just like-- [MIMICS EXPLOSION] to find out that four of probably the most iconic people in your mind were all friends and all hanging out at what was very obviously a crucible moment in each of their lives, because within weeks Cassius would become Muhammad Ali. He would break away from Malcolm. Sam Cook would be dead by December of that year. Jim Brown was getting ready to retire from the NFL while on the set of The Dirty Dozen. I mean, real life powered the potential fiction of the film all on its own.

- You brothers, you could move mountains without lifting a finger.

KEVIN POLOWY: You weren't the most obvious candidate to tell this story. I say that mainly because you had never directed a feature before, but what was it about this story that made you want it to be your debut?

REGINA KING: Well, you know, Kemp Powers' words, they were on the page. The story was there, and the dialogue was the star to me. That's how I received it, and I knew that with the right actors, this could be something special.

It's an actor's piece, so when you're able to find actors who all agree that the dialogue is the star, and they all agree that we're doing a true embodiment and a characterization-- it's not a impersonation of these men. I felt like that would be half the battle right there, and I was actually looking to do a love story with a historical backdrop. This was a bit of a love story, if you will. Maybe not a romance, but more of a bromance.

KEVIN POLOWY: Bromance. [LAUGHTER]

REGINA KING: Yes.

- Why am I so pretty?

- Aww.

KEVIN POLOWY: Beyond the recognizability of these characters, at the heart of this film lies, I think, this really deep cutting examination of identity, of race and gender, of a never ending battle for equality. What, to you, does this story say about being a Black man in America?

KEMP POWERS: That it's a complicated relationship. It always has been, and it probably always will be. I mean, the reason these guys are having this debate, and again, I feel like it's not even specifically just a debate we're having as Black Americans.

I think if you go across the Black diaspora and look at major Black communities in Western culture, so that would be namely Black Americans, Black Brits, other Black Europeans, Black Frenchmen, Black Germans, Black Brazilians, where we're in these Western cultures where we are both distinctly that. A Black Brazilian is a Brazilian. A Black American is an American.

We're being told, you know, why does it have to be Black? Why can't you just be an American? But at the same time we're being told that, we're also being reminded on a daily basis how we're not really completely American or American enough or authentically American, and we're often being reminded this by the children of immigrants who came here after us, who just happen to be white.

LESLIE ODOM JR.: There was something about this script that I have seen lots and lots of movies, but I've never seen four brothers in a room having a conversation quite like this. Even if they weren't Sam Cook and Malcolm X and Jim Brown and Cassius Clay.

KEVIN POLOWY: Right.

LESLIE ODOM JR.: It was still, just on its own, it was still, like, this is, this is how we talk to each other. Are we going to, are we going to really do that on camera? You know, do that. And that was our task.

ELI GOREE: I think that the thing that a lot of us have discussed amongst ourselves is that this is a conversation amongst men that we would have today. You know, I think it's an honest and sincere and vulnerable conversation amongst Black men about the issues that we're facing, that we often either are showing as, you know, very aggressive or violent or super suave and cool and unaffected or sexualized or just, there's different ways that we're shown, but rarely is it just authentic and human and vulnerable as Black men.

- This movement that we are in is called a struggle, because we are fighting for our lives.

KEVIN POLOWY: How do you think the conversations these men are having relates to today? I mean, would the conversations they had even be much different if these guys met up in 2021?

REGINA KING: It wouldn't have been different if they met up in 1940. It wouldn't have been different in '60, '70, '80, '90, 2021. 1930. It wouldn't have been different, unfortunately. I think the only thing that might be slightly different is that we're in a space now that I think Black people, we are embracing the idea that we don't have to be apologetic, that we can't express publicly how we feel about the systems that have been put in place and have been what they are since most of us were even here.

KINGSLEY BEN-ADIR: This film is something that I've never read anything like it, and we don't make films like this. That is, they're very rare. And then, you know, we shot and wrapped in February, and then so went into this global pandemic and George Floyd and the world sort of flipped on its head in a very short space of time, and in Regina's words, you know, the time for this movie is now. The words of these men in this film were really important, you know, then and, and now.

KEVIN POLOWY: You know, we talk a lot about representation and how slow Hollywood has been to catch up to reality. But how do you look at the role of a film like One Night in Miami in that context. I mean, is this a film that would have been made 10, 20, 30 years ago?

ALDIS HODGE: Depends on who's making it, you know? 30 years ago, it might have been Spike doing it, you know. 20 years ago, yeah, it would have been made. It depends on-- the time frame it comes out right now, we are lucky enough to come out at such a pivotal time where this applies so directly to what we're going through in this country and can also be applied around the world.

With this film, I think it's yet again another great piece of art that sets a standard that allows for any particular debate of whether or not, you know, opportunities should be granted, is undeniable, because we've created such fantastic art. And I don't mean that as a means of bolstering up my own performance in that way. What I'm saying is as a team, we created something that generated a cultural effect thus far that speaks to what needs to be addressed right now.