One of my favorite films of 2020 was Regina King’s fantastic directorial debut One Night in Miami. Based off the award-winning play of the same name by Kemp Powers, the film imagines a fictional night in 1964 where Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), and Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) discuss race, religion, and their personal responsibility to the civil rights movement. Loaded with some of the best performances you’ll see in a movie this year, I cannot recommend this film enough. In addition, Regina King shows she is a real talent behind the camera and I would imagine she is being offered a number of other projects to direct this year.

Shortly after seeing the movie I got to speak with Odom Jr. about why this was such a dream role, how he got ready to perform Cook’s iconic song “A Change is Gonna Come,” if he feels like we’re on the verge of real change in the wake of last year’s conversations around Black Lives Matter and systemic racism, and more.” In addition, he talks about why Central Park Season 2 will be even better than the first season.

Leslie Odom Jr.

I jokingly ask how much he paid to be in the film.
What did it mean to portray Sam Cooke?
How did he get ready to perform A Change is Gonna Come and what it meant to him to sing the song?
Does he feel like the past year with Black Lives Matter and how much society is talking about systemic racism that we are on the verge of real change?
Did he stay in character while filming?
What can he say about the songs and story in Central Park Season 2?

Here's the official synopsis:

On one incredible night in 1964, four icons of sports, music, and activism gathered to celebrate one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. When underdog Cassius Clay, soon to be called Muhammad Ali, (Eli Goree), defeats heavy weight champion Sonny Liston at the Miami Convention Hall, Clay memorialized the event with three of his friends: Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge).Based on the award-winning play of the same name, and directed by Regina King, One Night In Miami... is a fictional account inspired by the historic night these four formidable figures spent together. It looks at the struggles these men faced and the vital role they each played in the civil rights movement and cultural upheaval of the 1960s. More than 40 years later, their conversations on racial injustice, religion, and personal responsibility still resonate.

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