How Samuel L. Jackson Used His Personal Experience in 1970s Atlanta For ‘Fight Night’: “He Kept Us in Line”

Taraji P. Henson is posing in front of the hottest seat at the premiere of Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist. 

There’s a line of her Fight Night co-stars waiting for their turn to be photographed on a metallic gold tufted sofa, flown in especially for the New York City afterparty. Attendees might believe it’s an inspired set design from the limited series based on a storied piece of Atlanta history from the 1970s, but the couch has its own history. More about that later.

Fight Night follows the real events around Oct. 26, 1970, the night Muhammad Ali made a historic return to boxing after a three-year suspension for avoiding the U.S. Armed Forces draft. At the same time, a celebratory party across town hosted by an Atlanta numbers runner Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams (played by Kevin Hart) was going terribly wrong. Chicken Man’s brazen attempts to impress notorious New York gangster Frank Moten (Samuel L. Jackson), the party’s honored guest, went widely askew as they entered the house party. Chicken Man, Moten and nearly 100 other affluent guests become victims of one of the city’s biggest robbery heists.

The series was adapted from the true-crime podcast, created by Atlanta-based screenwriter-turned-podcaster Jeff Keating and film producer Will Packer and launched on iHeartPodcast in October 2020. The podcast caught the attention of Kevin Hart, who signed on to star and executive produce when Peacock ordered the series.

With Hart on board, Packer made his next call as he began building out the ensemble cast: “Sam Jackson… We went straight to the big dog,” Packer told The Hollywood Reporter at the series premiere on Wednesday in New York City. “I said, ‘Yo, Sam, we got something for you, brother. This is gonna be good. We’re all in. And if you get in, you will be our anchor, and we will be able to build an incredible cast around you.’”

Jackson’s heavyweight talent grounded the series in more ways than one. The award-winning actor has personal ties to Fight Night’s history. “I knew Sam was around in Atlanta during the time this all went down. What I didn’t know is we were shooting in the neighborhood where his wife was from, and he had got married at the church around the corner 40 years ago,” said series creator and showrunner Shaye Ogbunna. “Samuel Jackson is a part of the constituency that I feel responsible towards telling the story accurately.” 

Packer couldn’t agree more. “Sam was a wealth of information throughout. He would tell us if we weren’t getting things right — if that wasn’t the watch that they wore, if that wasn’t the look that they had,” said the executive producer. “Sam was very serious about that because he lived through it. He was at college at Morehouse at the time, so he was like an extra researcher for us that made sure he kept us in line. Sam said we got this right, and that meant a lot coming from him.”

Fight Night‘s stellar ensemble reunites several castmembers, including Taraji P. Henson, who plays Chicken Man’s right hand and lover Vivian Thomas, while Terrence Howard stars as Moten’s enforcer Cadillac Richie. Henson and Howard both had breakout moments when they appeared in 2005’s Hustle & Flow and 10 years later in the TV series Empire.

Don Cheadle plays J.D. Hudson, one of the first Black detectives in Atlanta’s desegregated police force, who gets assigned to the robbery case. Cheadle and Henson led the biopic Talk to Me in 2007. Although they did not share much screen time in Fight Night, they saw each other off-set and have been in touch through the years. “It’s like home,” Cheadle said of working with Henson. “I love her. I’m a big fan of her work, and I love whenever we have the opportunity to come together again.”

Back at the afterparty at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Howard stayed in character by wearing a Farrah Fawcett-inspired feathered wig while Cheadle was outfitted by British bespoke tailor Ozawald Boateng. Other Fight Night co-stars Jackson, Sinqua Walls, Chloe Bailey, Dexter Darden, Lori Harvey as well as party attendees Ego Nwodim, Amber Ruffin, Busta Rhymes and more made their way to the gold couch for photos. The elaborate decor hails from the office of former Roc Nation senior vp Lenny “Kodak Lens” Santiago, who’s taking his love of photographing the private parties of Jay-Z and Beyoncé to Hollywood. 

When asked about the significance of the couch to Fight Night, Santiago said this: “The couch has become sort of an aspirational thing. I used to be an A&R in the music business, where I would sign artists, develop talent, and then I used to feature those artists and people who I like on the couch. Now it’s become aspirational, like, ‘Look, I’m gonna make it to that couch.’ Because people who are on the couch have made it in one way or another, and it doesn’t matter in what capacity, hairdresser, mechanic, director, producer… The couch has become so popular it’s taken a life of its own.”

Fight Night’s first three episodes are now streaming on Peacock, with new episodes on Thursdays.