Peacock’s Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist brings together a dynamic cast to tell an even more energetic story. The eight-episode, limited series expands on the narrative of a real-life heist that took place in Atlanta on the night of Muhammed Ali’s return to the ring after being barred for refusing to enter the United States draft.
Starring Kevin Hart in the leading role of Chicken Man, the dramatic retelling based on the acclaimed iHeart true-crime podcast of the same name, both produced by Will Packer. According to the series’ official description, “Chicken Man is hellbent on clearing his name but must convince his old adversary, J.D. Hudson (Don Cheadle), one of the first Black detectives in the city’s desegregated police force, who is tasked with bringing those responsible to justice.”
For Packer, translating his audio work to the silver screen wasn’t a walk in the park.“It’s not easy because those are two very different mediums, but I felt like the source material was so good that in the hands of the right writer and the right creative, that we be able to not only be true to the original story, but augment it because this is not a documentary,” Packer explained to VIBE.
“We definitely took this based on real things and real people, but then Shaye [Ogbona] and his team was able to take a lot of license and make it what I think is the supercharged version of the original story. I think that’s what audiences will appreciate.”
Fight Night debuted three episodes earlier this month, with the remaining five premiering every Thursday on the streaming platform. Ahead of its series premiere, VIBE chatted with the Packer, Ogbona, and cast (Hart, Taraji P. Henson, Chloe Bailey, Sinqua Walls, and Samuel L. Jackson) who shared their thoughts on their characters, the series, and what they hope viewers can take away from their latest work.
-
On Inspiration Behind The Series
Image Credit: Fernando Decillis/PEACOCK) Shaye Ogbonna: “It was all of these events and all of these characters coming together that really … That was what inspired me to want to tell the story because you don’t really get a chance to see, especially period pieces, with Black folk, where we’re seeing them as aspirational, where we’re seeing them as dreamers, where it’s just not trauma. For me, it was like … That is Atlanta to me in a nutshell. That’s the Atlanta I grew up in. It was very much this aspirational city where everybody was hustling, trying to get ahead, no matter whether you were in politics or you were a hustler. Everybody seemed to be hustling for something. This is the first, in terms of [a] real-life story, that I thought embodied that thing that I feel like is so intrinsic in Atlanta’s DNA.”
Samuel L. Jackson: “I was there when it happened and I know people who got robbed and my wife grew up around the corner from where the house was and all that. All that’s in my head, and I was there when the mythology was going around when people were trying to figure out who did it and who [do] you think …. [and] how much money did they get? It was a big deal in Atlanta. So for someone to come up all these years later and want to tell that story and put these characters in it, I kind of go, well, okay, well let’s see how this is going to play out. And they did a really great job of coming up with a story and filling in the gaps around the facts. Mythologically. We don’t know that that’s what happened, but it’s kind of fun to watch.”
-
On Their Characters
Image Credit: Parrish Lewis/PEACOCK Chloe Bailey: “Lena is a firecracker and she is holding her own amongst the boys and she is trying to get away from this lifestyle, but life and its circumstances have brought her back to the ground and she’s like, you know what, let’s buckle up and do this. I’m going to do this one last good time, give it my all and then I’m done with this life. And I think she had a lot of high hopes for herself and her family, her cousin specifically, and we just have to see where that lands her.”
Sinqua Walls: “McKinley is someone that I loved right on the page. I like the complexity that he’s dealing with. I like the fact that he’s struggling to make the right decisions. And I like the fact that he goes on a journey that I think is very representative of trying to become successful in the world that we live in today. What do you do when you’re faced with certain circumstances? You use the tools around you. And he may not have always had the best tools, but he tried to make the best of them and we see what that gets him. And so ultimately I think that’s a lot of people’s journey, a lot of people’s circumstances in society and life today. And so that’s why I really related to him. I never judged him. I just always understood where he was trying to get to.
I think the one thing I did appreciate too was that he knew what he was doing was bad, but he did it anyway. So it’s like what did you expect? When your mom told you that the stove was hot, it burned you. Don’t touch the stove again. He could have not touched the stove, keep painting houses, man, but he didn’t. And then we saw what happened.”
Samuel L. Jackson: “I put the show in sort of a blackploitation miniseries. It’s like watching a really great blackploitation movie with all these flashy characters and the clothes, the music, the hair, the whole look. But taking this audience back to that space in a real and entertaining kind of way. So that they’re not going to just turn away from it because it’s like, oh, this is boring. You got good storylines, you got good characters in there.
The reality of what the societal ethics were at that particular time come through. You got a whole group of people that are all trying to strive and change their lives in a real kind of way. Frank recognizes the fact that gangsterism is one thing, but this whole thing about Atlanta and what’s getting ready to happen that I can feel I need to be a part of. You have Don’s character, cop who’s trying to figure out a way to manipulate, well not manipulate, but maneuver his way through the police department and become an actual cop because it wasn’t until, I don’t know, maybe ’72 or ’73 that black cops in Atlanta could actually arrest white people. So it was like kind of crazy like that. And then you got Chicken Man who’s just trying desperately to do enough to get enough money to make a better life for himself and his family. So you got a bunch of people striving to do things here. So it’s about more than just that robbery.”
-
On The Set Experience
Taraji P. Henson: “So I was very excited to do something dramatic with my friend because I just always knew he would be good at it. Then for the moment, there was a moment in our first real dramatic scene where he got me, and I look for these moments and that’s why it’s very important to have great scene partners because I know how to put a scene on my back and carry it, but that’s not fun. It’s fun when you have a scene partner play with and sometimes emotional stuff is hard to get to, especially if you don’t have that partner there giving you something. And I remember this day, this particular day I didn’t feel like being emotional because it wrecks me after, it takes so much out of me, right? Sometimes I have to pull from shit in my life, which opens up old wounds.
But this day here my friend, I didn’t have to do that. I looked into this man’s eyes and your voice, it was something when you said, they going to kill me and your voice cracked. Shit, he got me. And that scene took off and I knew he was going to be good, right? But I do more drama than he does. So I came to set with the mindset, okay, I’m going to have to figure out where these tears going. You know what I mean? Because I just didn’t want to do it. And because I had a great team scene partner in Kevin, he literally helped me get to there. He didn’t even know I didn’t feel like that that day. But because he was there and he was hot and loaded, it helped me.”
Kevin Hart: “I can say the same thing. In a teammate, you can’t ask for more. Like she said, I didn’t know. I had no idea about what she was going through that day if it was good day or bad day because it looked as if she came to work ready to work and ready to joust and have some good back and forth. And every day was like that. I never had a worry in what we would do or how we would do it. I was always confident that we would get there somehow. And I think our director made us feel comfortable or directors, because we didn’t just have one, made us feel very comfortable with how we started our days of discovery and we didn’t shoot until everybody was on the same page. So I couldn’t ask for any more from Taraji. And what I thought she was, she forever will be and the resume speaks for itself. So lucky to have four projects under my belt with her to date and they keep getting better and better as time goes on.”
Sinqua Walls: “We were just so supportive, collaborative, and enjoyed being around each other, which is rare because we all were in so many different worlds, but we would come together, whether it was in the world that we lived in as the robbers, or whether it was in the world where Ali lived in or occasionally going to watch like Don and Dexter [Darden] worked together, watching Kevin and Sam, we were just so supportive and in it with each other and we enjoyed being there and that’s really how it was. And that is rare and I’m grateful that this rarity was amongst a people, a large group of people that we look up and admire and we know through the ether, but we can aspire to be even more like and create those spaces.
-
On What Audiences Should Take Away
Image Credit: Eli Joshua Adé/PEACOCK Will Packer: I want them to have a good time. I know that’s simplistic, but in today’s world, everything is negative and there all kind of stuff that are going wrong. We’re reminded every day how perilous just our existence is. This is a story that’s serious. It’s a story that’s obviously based on true events, but ultimately, I want people to be entertained. I want them to invest in these characters. I want them to have a good time watching it. We are not trying to waste anybody’s time. We want you to meet these characters, understand their motivations, see why the events unfold the way that they do. It’s a lot of content out there. People can choose anything. We hope they choose this, and that they feel better for it at the end of the day because it made them feel something.
Taraji P. Henson: “I would say I hope the takeaway for people when they walk this journey with Vivian is that no matter what in this world, I don’t care, partners, parents, children, at the end of the day, it’s you. At the end of the day, it’s all on you. I am sure Vivian never saw a world where she would have to go on this journey of making her dreams come true without Chicken because that’s how she always saw it. That was the dream that they were on making this thing happen together. And then it went left and she had to detour. Detours happen all the time, but when they come all you have to rely on is you. And that’s what you will see walking this journey with Vivian.”
Kevin Hart: “I hope that they understand that the mindset of a hustler and a dreamer is real. It is not fiction. It’s 1000% realistic and it doesn’t get bigger than Chicken Man’s thought process to changing the economy of Atlanta, to changing the perception of the South and connecting the business dots of some of the biggest in culture and community at that time, right? Gangsters from all over. Well, we wanted them to come here and share a common thought and understanding this is the next big investment. This is where your time, energy, and money should all be placed. And I’m the guy that can handle it and make sure that the goals as smooth as possible. As smooth as possible. So I just want them to relate once again to the idea of the dreamer being more than just the idea with the right energy and the right side of belief of personnel behind that idea. And that’s what Chicken Man has, and that’s now with the city of Atlanta as a result has been rewarded from. It’s that start, that origin story.”