Posted in: Peacock, TV | Tagged: Dexter Darden, don cheadle, exclusive, Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, interview, kevin hart, Muhammad Ali, peacock, samuel l jackson, Shaye Ogbonna, taraji p. henson

Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist: Dexter Darden on Portraying Ali

Dexter Darden (Saved by the Bell) spoke with Bleeding Cool about playing Muhammad Ali in Peacock's Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist.

Few iconic figures are just as enigmatic and charismatic as boxing legend Muhammad Ali. While Dexter Darden doesn't have the tall task of doing a comprehensive biopic like Will Smith did in Michael Mann's 2001 biopic Ali, capturing his mannerisms, moves, and personality is not any less daunting task for the young star. While promoting his film Half Baked: Totally High, Darden spoke with Bleeding Cool about Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, the Peacock limited series crime drama from Shaye Ogbonna, how he tackled the challenge of the role, and sharing the screen with an ensemble cast led by Kevin Hart, Samuel L. Jackson, Taraji P. Henson, and Don Cheadle and what he learned from his more veteran co-stars. The limited series, based on the podcast Fight Night, centers on a heist during the night of Ali's return to boxing in 1970.

Fight Night: Dexter Darden on Capturing The Essence of Muhammad Ali

Bleeding Cool: You have this challenging role coming up with 'Fight Night.' I can only imagine what's going through your head as far as taking on Muhammad Ali. How do you even get into his mindset? Aside from…

Besides YouTube University? Listen, Muhammad Ali is a huge task, as our showrunner said, "It's Herculean." When going into preparation for Ali, I did everything in my power to study him; of course, I went to YouTube University and watched 12 hours of Ali a day. I also got a chance to go to Louisville, where he grew up at his home. I got to see where he was buried and I ran some miles in Louisville using my intuition of what he ran. It was about understanding the man outside of the ring, how complicated he was, and what he did not only for social justice but what he did to make himself at peace. As much as I could understand the human, I listened and read his book, and everybody has this image of Ali in their mind. You see him doing the face, or you see him with the voice, boxing in the ring, or cracking a joke, but who's the guy who got to the ring and after the ring? That's what I tried to build here.

You got such a powerhouse cast that includes Kevin Hart, Don Cheadle, Taraji P. Henson, Samuel L Jackson, and Terrence Howard. Were you able to gain any invaluable knowledge from their presence and experience or was it another day at the office?

Every single one of them I'm learning all day. Kevin is such a multi-million dollar mission analyst, and all is not just about the money. It's about the layout of the careers they've all set for themselves in the work that they've done to get there. I was fortunate to have a lot of scenes with Don Cheadle, and he's such a master at what he does. He's not only a genius on set but also off, not to mention he was so kind. Anytime I was in a room with him, I was not just asking questions. I learned how we moved into that room, what he communicated with the producers and directors, and what he does during his off time when he's not on set to prep for the next day of work. I'm a student, man. My mother is an attorney. I grew up learning from others, so I apply it to myself and when you're working with five icons like them. We also have young icons who think, "Wow, what else you got?" You got Melvin Gregg, Myles Bullock, Chloe Bailey, and Lori Harvey. You have all these young people who are now also trying to take on what those vets have left for us, do you know what I mean? This role came at the perfect time in my career because I'm now able to understand what they did to get to the next level so I can hopefully apply to myself and do the same thing.

Fight Night premieres September 5th on Peacock.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!