Jaaleen Best had little knowledge about who Muhammad Ali was as he was growing up in Alexandria, Va. But he recalls how others compared him to the legendary boxer.
“There were cousins, people like that who said, ‘Hey, you look like the young Muhammad Ali,’ ” Best said. “Then there were people when I would be playing a pick-up basketball game who would say, ‘Man, you remind us of a young Ali.’ ”
The 28-year-old actor is now a walking encyclopedia of the athlete who is arguably one of the most famous and beloved figures in America. More significantly, he has become Ali.
Best stars as Ali in Prime Video’s “The Greatest” which premiered Nov. 4. The eight-episode season differs from most projects centered on Ali, tracing his coming-of-age, when he was known as Cassius Clay before taking on the name which would define his conversion to Muslim.
The series dramatizes Ali’s journey from his gold medal victory at the 1960 Rome Olympics to his first world championship battle with Sonny Liston in 1964 when he renounced the name of Clay as a “slave name.” Along the way he would experience triumphs but also formidable odds such as racism in his community and conflicts in his family, including hints of domestic violence.
Executive producers of the series include Oscar winner Michael B. Jordan (“Sinners”) and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation production company. The cast includes Omari Hardwick (“Power”) as Ali’s father Cassius “Cash” Sr., Michael Ealy (“Think Like a Man”) as Malcolm X and Giovanni Ribisi (“American Hostage”) as trainer Angelo Dundee.
Best was all smiles during a video call from his home in Hawaii as he sat in front of a wall with a Christmas wreath. (“One of my favorite times of the year is the holiday season. I start celebrating early here.”)
“I look at this as a tremendous opportunity,” said Best, who had only a few professional acting credits before “The Greatest.” “I just felt so ready for this through the entire process.
“Because I didn’t really have a perspective on Ali growing up, I felt that made me more perfect, in addition to my athletic background,” he added. “Plus we’re telling a story that hasn’t really been told before.”
Ali‘s widow, Lonnie, who is an executive producer of the project, said of Best in a statement: “With Jaalen Best, we have uncovered a soulful gem. He is such a talented young man who not only embodies Muhammad, but exudes his resilience, courage, charisma and confidence.”
“The Greatest” is the latest in a voluminous array of books, documentaries and films created over the years about the larger-than-life figure whose fame intersected sports, entertainment and political and religious lines. The most prominent entries include 1996’s Oscar-winning documentary “When We Were Kings,” about the infamous “Rumble in the Jungle” with George Foreman, and Michael Mann’s 2001 film “Ali,” which featured Will Smith’s Oscar-nominated performance as the boxer.
The new drama also shares the title with a biopic, “The Greatest,” in which the heavyweight champion played himself. The 1977 feature, which covers the same era as the series, co-starred Robert Duvall and Ernest Borgnine.
But creator and executive producer Ben Watkins (Prime Video’s “Cross”) said he was not daunted in the least revisiting well-tilled territory.
“From my perspective, there can never be enough about Ali,” he said in a video interview. “I would say there needs to be something every other month. The challenge of people working in TV is knowing what has been done and what can we do differently.
“Yes, he’s been well covered, but we haven’t seen behind the curtain. We haven’t seen what happens when the cameras are not rolling or when the lights are off, so I decided to lean into that. My hero, who I had put on a pedestal, was just a kid, just a human. That was very refreshing and enlightening for me and made me admire him even more.”
Lonnie Ali proved to be a valuable resource, Watkins said, since she she had known Ali as a young man and could put producers in touch with others who had known him.
He added, “We’ve been through the documentaries, the movies, the books. The key thing was to go back and instead of blowing through those little moments, make those the moments you focus on. Then I can use that as a launch pad to deal with the more well-known events.”
The more daunting challenge was finding the right actor to play the legendary Ali. Casting director Kim Coleman, who was a casting consultant on “Ali,” searched community theaters and boxing gyms while also looking at more veteran actors.
“It was a really grueling process,” Watkins said. “We looked at thousands of candidates. Once I found that person, then I would need them to train and sculpt and transform.”
Watkins said Best was an early standout: “I wanted someone who could deliver the essence of Ali, the charisma and confidence accompanied by an incredible work ethic and ambition.”
Although he had a background in competitive basketball, soccer and football, Best had never boxed before. But he was given six months to train before shooting began. “At first boxing was a real challenge, but I came in with a readiness to learn,” he said. “My trainer would challenge me to think like an athlete as opposed to thinking like an actor.”
Still, the continual focus on authenticity during training sessions could be harrowing, “There would be 12 hour days of just boxing,” Best said. “I had to memorize every punch and every move of Ali’s real fights. Those were real long days. There was a physical therapist on the set.”
The real priority was perfecting the Ali shuffle in the ring.
“It would always bother me when I’d see actors playing Ali that they could never get the shuffle right,” Best said. “So early in the process, I really worked on that.”
The work outside of the ring was also intense. “I really studied his voice. He had a spoken-word an album in 1963 called ‘I Am the Greatest.’ I would study and listen to that album five hours a day. I would play it real loud, and it did get to the point where I could recite it without listening to it.”
Best was also determined to differentiate between the public and the private Ali. “There was this bravado in his voice when he was out, and another voice when he was with his mom and dad. He was very different in private, very quiet. He cried a lot and had a very sensitive side. So it was like playing two different people.”
He also did not shy away from studying other actors’ performances of Ali, particularly Smith’s: “I would break down every portrayal I could, whether it was a film or TV show. At the same time, I’m developing my own perspective in doing my own research and reading books. So once I had a grasp of Ali from Jaalen’s perspective, I discovered the nuances which allowed me to bring a more human approach and make Ali more grounded.”
If the series is renewed, Watkins has two more eras he would like to explore: the “dark years,” when the boxer spoke out against the Vietnam War and was banned from boxing, and the period leading to “the Rumble in the Jungle.”
Best, in the meantime, is grateful for the experience of playing an icon: “It’s something I feel I can carry with me forever.”
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