However daunting, it was still a task the Tony-winningHamiltonalum was prepared for.
“Many of us get to use that training so infrequently.”
One Night in Miamiwill be released later this year via Amazon Prime Video.
Leslie Odom Jr. in ‘One Night in Miami’.Credit: Patti Perret/Amazon Studios
LESLIE ODOM JR.:It’s all been upside.
Quite frankly, most of the people that are watchingHamiltonon Disney+ are experiencing the show for the first time.
It is their first experience of it.
Getting intoOne Night in Miami, what was the casting process like for this?
I did not see Sam Cooke in me.
There’s so much footage on Sam, and we hear Sam.
We’ve heard Sam our whole lives.
He’s been in our ear.
They’ve never done that before.
They called me, and they said, “We really think you should reconsider.”
I gave the script a second look, and I saw beyond that.
I saw beyond my fear, and I really saw what Kemp was doing in that script.
He was having a very private conversation publicly.
And then when I became an adult, I started to have them myself.
These are the kinds of talks that we have.
Kemp says it about his own experience.
This is the way him and his friends were talking at Howard University when he was coming up.
This is the way we were talking backstage atHamilton.
So I was going to have to find my way there through my fear.
I had to, because Sam was having the conversation.
You already mentioned this, but this is a vastly different historical figure from Aaron Burr.
Were you doing anything different research-wise?
You mentioned watching footage of Cooke.
Yes, I had never had to do that before.
I’d never had to adhere so closely to my research.
Even with Burr, I realized early on, I was reading all this info on Burr.
Voracious in my reading on Burr and Hamilton.
And somewhere early on in the process, I said, “You know what?”
Because I was starting to feel a little constricted by my research.
And most of the audiences are not going to know as much on Burr as you do.
So free yourself up."
And also I said, “They’re not looking for a book report.
I had to have grace for myself in this.
I’m no fan of myself.
I’m harder on myself than anybody.
Regina, Kemp, we wanted to bring these men as close as possible.
There is no footage.
There is no record of that, and so we could take a leap of the imagination.
You use your imagination, and you imagine, “What if?
Could this be what they talked about?
What if they had pressed each other in this way?”
Everything Regina offered me was something that I would not have seen.
Regina made me better.
We all have to.
From all of the design elements, certainly to the performances.
Regina was brilliant at that.
We knew what we were after.
How did you end up writing the credits song?
Was that something that you were in talks for, from the beginning of being cast as Sam Cooke?
That they would take that experience of Sam and then [write a song].
Because the task was so great, we wrote four different songs.
I worked with four different teams of songwriters and wrote four different songs.
I worked with Sam actually on my original album,Mr.
If I’m being honest, I just feel like I’m just getting started [in film].
I’d never done it before, and I really found something.
That’s what I know.
