Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1535749
THE ARTISAN SUMMER 2025 • 37 PHOTOS COURTESY OF PEACOCK There were two reasons I was immediately excited to embark on Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist when I got the call from producer Will Packer's team. e first was that it was my first project aer the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in 2024. e second was that it was a period piece, a limited series set in Atlanta in 1970. I've worked on plenty of period pieces before, earning Emmy nominations for e First Lady in 2022, Hairspray Live! in 2017, and Bessie in 2015. But I was particularly interested in the specific moment in which Fight Night took place and how I could authentically tell the stories of each of the show's characters. Fight Night is set against Muhammad Ali's October 30, 1970, comeback fight, which was a major moment for Ali, who had lost his boxing license three years prior for refusing the dra in protest of the war in Vietnam. But it was also a major moment for Atlanta and its residents. Among them are Don Cheadle's Detective J.D. Hudson, one of the city's first Black police officers who is tasked with providing security for the infamously brash and outspoken Ali. ere's also Kevin Hart's Gordon "Chicken Man" Williams, a local hustler running a small-time numbers game who recognizes the influx of spectators arriving in Atlanta for the fight (including some of the most powerful organized crime figures in the country, like Samuel L. Jackson's "Black Godfather" Frank Moten and Terrence Howard's Richard "Cadillac Richie" Wheeler) can help him turn Atlanta into a Black Las Vegas. With his mistress and right-hand woman Vivian (Taraji P. Henson) at his side, Chicken Man sets up a big blowout for Atlanta's visiting luminaries—unaware that a separate scheme to rob that party will make Chicken Man out to be the Black mob's no. 1 one enemy. e thing about period work is that it's very specific, and to tell a story set in a particular time is what I love to do. Fight Night itself was fun for me because it's set in 1970. Not only is it an introduction to the '70s, but it's also the tail end of the '60s. ere are a lot of remnants of the previous decade mixed in with the excitement of moving forward. I was born in 1967, so I was there for this moment. I got to do a combination of research and remembering. When I searched on Getty Images, the pictures I found when I hit those buttons reminded me of my childhood. Once I do all my own research, I do a big walk through with the costume department before I start work on my project. When I saw the costumes for Fight Night, I exhaled. I knew I was on the right page when it came to color palettes, particularly hair styles with a bit of auburn color. ere are certain hair colors you simply did not see in certain periods of history, and there were not a lot of Black people with blonde hair in 1970. But I needed to make sure of what was current at that time and on point with the costumes and the sets in our present. From the start, I stayed in communication with the costume, make- up, and art departments; there were things they had created long before the cameras began rolling that inspired me to tweak my own designs. Once I saw where Vivian worked, for example, I knew I could make Taraji's hair a little more edgy. When I saw the church attended by Chicken Man's wife Faye (played by Artrece Johnson), I leaned more conservative in her styling. A lot of department heads may not want to follow that process, but I want to do that little bit of work before I land completely on my vision of a character. e visual collaborations I established with other departments contributed to each character's development throughout the show. But the most important element of my job was the actual hair itself. Taraji P. Henson as Vivian Thomas Artrece Johnson as Faye Williams Kevin Hart as Gordon "Chicken Man" Williams, Taraji P. Henson Don Cheadle as JD Hudson, Jeff Sprauve as Romel David Banner as Missouri Slim Samuel L. Jackson as Frank Moten