In The Greatest, Cassius Clay comes home from the 1960 Olympics with a gold medal and learns it doesn’t change how the world treats him.
The moment comes in a Louisville diner, and it marks a turning point in Prime Video’s series from creator, showrunner and director Ben Watkins, which stars Jaalen Best as the young Clay. Best and Watkins spoke exclusively with BLKCinema.com during our cast interview about filming the scene and why it sets the foundation for the man Clay would become.
Jaalen Best on Cassius Clay’s turning point
Best said the scene is where Clay’s questions shift from winning to legacy.
“It was the turning point for young Cassius Clay, for where things started to change, and the questions became more legacy-building questions,” Best said. “When we were filming those scenes and I was trying to figure out how to navigate it, I would lean on Ben a lot, because it was my first time really filming. A lot of what he would tell me was along the lines of, here you are with big shoes to fill, and you have a responsibility.”
He said he related to Clay’s position personally.
“If you look into my own personal life, I’m that young kid who’s about to take on the world, in this position where I can change the lives of my family and the people around me, where my life is gonna change,” he continued. “It allowed me for that first time to feel just a piece of that weight of carrying your people. To be in a different place like Rome, and then the next thing is, I love it here. I love the way I’m treated. How do I carry that back home? How do I create this for myself back home, and how do I create it for my people?”
“For one second, I got a chance to put myself deeply into those shoes, and from that experience, it really allowed me to get to a more grounded place where I can lean on my own personal experiences and trust my preparation,” Best said. “And then also being surrounded by Lonnie Ali on set and seeing her reactions watching the monitor, that was very refreshing, and it gave me a sense of comfort to trust my instincts.”
Ben Watkins on building the diner scene
Watkins said the season was built to show the foundation behind the icon.
“If anyone is a lifelong fan of Muhammad Ali like I am, you’ve heard some version of that story,” Watkins said. “Once I knew that we were gonna do a coming-of-age story for Season 1, and start with him winning the gold medal and end in ‘64 when he wins the heavyweight championship, I knew we had to do a story that gave people a sense of the bricks, brick by brick, that built the foundation of the man they would come to idolize. But it’s starting with a kid who’s got dreams and vulnerabilities and flaws, and one of them is being naive to the ways of the world and thinking that winning a gold medal might just change everything. It’s a reality check, and we really decided we needed to dramatize that.”
He credited the cast and crew for making it feel real.
“I have to take my hat off to everyone who helped build that moment, the way the diner was recreated and the actors that came to play on that day. Remember, there’s white actors that have to play racists that are not racist, and they’ve got to lean into it. Otherwise, the moment feels false, and they did that,” Watkins said.
He said Best’s reaction on the day shaped the final scene.
“I’ll never forget the moment when the manager of the restaurant says some really mean, nasty things to Cassius Clay, and I remember Jaalen having such a visceral reaction to that. After that take, I had to go to him and say, hey, you’ve got to take it back. Take it back to 1960. Take it back to what would have happened if you did something. There is a journey here, but we’re at the beginning of it,” Watkins said. “But I also knew in that moment that he was locked in, because now it’s just natural feelings happening. And what was even more beautiful to watch was having him restrain himself. That broke my heart more than anything in that scene.”
Where can I watch ‘The Greatest’?
All eight episodes of The Greatest are streaming on Prime Video.
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