VIDEO: Leslie Odom Jr., Kingsley Ben-Adir & Eli Goree Talk ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI on THE KAREN HUNTER SHOW

The film premieres on Amazon Prime on January 15th.

By: Jan. 13, 2021
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Actors Leslie Odom Jr., Kingsley Ben-Adir and Eli Goree joined SiriusXM Urban View's "The Karen Hunter Show" and spoke with host Karen Hunter about co-starring in "One Night in Miami," a fictional account of a night between Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown. The cast also talks about the state of America with Karen.

Watch the full interview below!

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.

Leslie Odom Jr. told Karen Hunter, "You can ride. What we discovered, I mean, it's not that difficult to understand. Charisma and humor, there's a lot of dangerous things at play here. And the same way that we saw Barack Obama ride the hope of a nation and appeal to the best of us and our better angels, and he coasted on our hope into the highest office of the land while watched somebody stir up the opposite. We watched somebody coast to that same office, stirring up the worst in us, and our basis instincts, and our anger, and our hatred, and our tribalism coasted to the same office. And so, I mean, listen, if you don't want to look back at modern American history, I hope that at the very least we will really try to understand the times that we're in right now, because this will be history in just a little while. And we must learn from this so that we don't let it happen again. What a horrible, wonderful time to be alive, but this is the best civics lesson that we are living through that has been in existence since the civil rights I think. We are really seeing the benefits of a free press right now, the way that, because if there was no, he's tried to convince us that the press was the enemy of the people, right for the last four years, but the way they are getting these things on record, let's get it on the record so that we don't allow what happened to the native Americans, what happened to our people, the fact that they can rewrite history and make it seem like we were a bunch of, they wanted people to believe that we enjoyed being enslaved and that it was for our benefit. So, what a civics lesson, what a time to be alive."

Odom Jr. is a Grammy Award­ winner as a principal soloist on Hamilton's Original Broadway Cast Recording, which won the 2015 award for Best Musical Theater Album.

He originated the role of Aaron Burr in a sold out run at The Public Theatre in 2015, earning a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical and a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical. He later took the role to Broadway, winning a Tony Award.

Odom, Jr. made his Broadway debut at the age of 17 in "Rent" before heading to Carnegie Mellon University's prestigious School of Drama, where he graduated with honors. He is the recipient of a 2002 Princess Grace Award for Acting, which is dedicated to identifying emerging talent in theater, dance and film.

Additional theatre credits include "Leap of Faith" on Broadway, for which he won the 2012 Astaire Award for Outstanding Male Dancer on Broadway and was nominated for a Drama League Award; the 2014 musical "Venice," which also played at The Public Theater; and the Encores! Off­ Center production of "Tick, Tick... Boom!" which was his first time working with "Hamilton" creator, Lin­-Manuel Miranda.


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