Regina King and Kemp Powers on “One Night in Miami…”

REGINA KING, DIRECTOR, “ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI…”: I read this script and I felt like, here is an opportunity to tell a story from a perspective of black men that we don’t get to see in cinema so often, but we as black people, see and experience and know black men as we see them in “One Night in Miami…”, in our lives day to day, all the time. And it was — I just felt like, I can’t play any of these roles, but I could definitely lead the ship. And when I met Kemp, we connected I think I truly understood what his, the story that he was telling, the love that he has for himself, the love that he has for the struggle and the different ways to approach how we will overcome that struggle.

AMANPOUR: OK. So it’s really interesting, you’re talking about love, because you apparently had told, I think, one of your collaborators and agent maybe that the first film you would direct, you hoped it would be a love story between a black man and a black woman. But it didn’t turn out. It turned out to be this when you’re describing it now as a love story. So let me ask you, Kemp Powers, who wrote the screenplay, what is it about the love? I mean, we’ve already set up the premieres, take it from there.

KEMP POWERS, SCREENWRITER, “ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI…”: Yes, well, you know, this, I was really thinking back to when I first found out that this was a real knife. And one of the — while I was doing a lot of my research, there was a wonderful interview I saw with Malcolm X where the news reporter, you know, was asking him about young Cassius Clay before he became Muhammad Ali. And Malcolm X describe cashes, I remember it vividly as an all American boy. And that really stuck with me. Because when you really look at all four of these men, not only are they all American boys, they’re evidence, they’re basically the American dream writ large.

CASSIUS: Yes, Cassius Marcellus Clay is the new heavyweight champion of the world, boy. Yes, he is. And I don’t even have a scratch on my foot. Oh, my goodness.

SAM: Cash —

JIM: What’s wrong, Cash?

SAM: What — Cash, what —

CASSIUS: Why am I so pretty? And I’m only 22 years old. There is no way I’m supposed to be this great.

POWERS: But because they happen to be black. All four of these men managed to be somewhat outlaws or outliers.