Mahershala Ali delivered one of his most memorable TV roles in HBO’s True Detective, and he’s ready to reunite with the network once again. The Oscar-winning actor has been cast as the boxing legend Jack Johnson in the limited series Unruly.
Johnson went down in history as the first African-American world heavyweight boxing champion. Unruly will be based on the PBS documentary Unforgivable Blackness, and explore “champion’s rise to athletic greatness and the costs he paid for his skin and defiance.”
Ali is no stranger to playing iconic historical figures—he won his second Oscar for portraying jazz pianist Don Shirley in The Green Book.
Surprisingly enough, he’s been dreaming of playing Johnson long before being cast in this role. “He is somewhat of a tragic figure, but I would love to play Jack Johnson. I would love to play Marvin Gaye. Marvin Gaye and Jack Johnson are my dream roles, but I really just want the opportunity to go on the hero’s journey. I’ve never done that,” Ali told The Hollywood Reporter back in 2017.
