Promoting Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight

Mockup of Supreme Court chamber in Brooklyn

There are times when you feel that your background role is really a part of something very big, and this was definitely one of those times. HBO is definitely getting better and better by tackling sensitive issues that were part of recent history's major events. Like when the champion boxer Cassius Clay converted to Islam and became Muhammad Ali, a conscientious objector to fighting in the Viet Nam War -the case went all the way to the top in 1971. And here we are, 40 years later, recreating the event -with me as one of the advocates. (Seems like I've been typecast for lawyer types in the past few months i.e. Damages, Blue Bloods -"trials and tribulations" not withstanding through the inadvertent preoccupation with Acting Strange.)

I was cast as one of Ali's advocates

You would never think that a studio existed in the middle of one of Brooklyn's major Jewish orthodox neighborhoods, but there it was, off of Avenue M, looking just like any other building in the old neighborhood. It seems that the sunset TV serial, As The World Turns, was taped here... back in the day. The studio had history and a lot of clunky equipment all over the place -as we soon discovered. As you walked through the fire doors you entered a football field sized hall with high ceilings and lots of hanging chains and struts for setting up just about any kind of set.

Holding area

Half of it was used as our holding area, where the PA's had to stand on chairs to make themselves heard. And the other half was utilized as the movie set for the Supreme Court chamber, where most of the action took place with a star-studded cast. The Supreme Court judges were played by the likes of Ed Bagley Jr., Frank Langella, Christopher Plummer, Barry Levinson, Harris Yulin, Fritz Weaver...(Danny Glover as Justice Thurgood Marshall, recused himself and I didn't get to see him at this shoot). The major lawyers arguing the case were played by Peter McRobbie and Tony winner Chuck Cooper (who bantered generously with us extras in between takes).



Chuck Cooper Peter McRobbie

Chuck even sang a song (acapella) for the entire cast in the "courtroom" while we waited for the director, Stephen Frears, wearing an orange scarf, to set up the camera angles. Now THAT singing performance was an unexpected treat!!!

Stephen Frears

I loved watching the court scene go down with the eloquent voices of Chris Plummer and Frank Langella. Frank was constantly joking around. At one point when the bare-necked preoccupied director tried to tell him something, Frank complained that he didn't know if he should listen to him without his ever-present orange scarf.

Christopher Plummer and Frank Langella

Stephen naturally went to get his scarf before continuing with Frank. An instance of a dialogue change was needed when a document was referred to as " 6 inches...". Somehow it didn't sound gramatically correct and I mentioned it to the guy next to me. It seems that the "judges" felt the same way because after a number of tongue-in-cheek side-comments and retakes, one of them raised his hand and asked the script writer for a correction. The guy next to me and I just looked at each other and nodded in satisfaction as the words "6 inches THICK (with a hand gesture)" was now part of the script's liturgy.

I have to say that this was one of the most professionally run sets I've been on for a long time. Besides the adequate food selections, we were constantly treated with updates of everything that was going on -from every scene description to the reasons for the lighting adjustments. Wardrobe and makeup went smoothly and the voucher sheets were adjusted without any recriminating admonishments of how the I-9 was missing a "1" in the appropriate field. At wrap-up we all shook hands with some of the principals and came away with a sense of... equality. Great crew!