Month: January 2021

The critically acclaimed film drops on Amazon Prime Video on January 15.

Halifax-born actor Eli Goree has appeared in hit shows like The 100, GLOW, Ballers and Riverdale but his latest project is undeniably his big breakout moment. Starring as Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali) in Regina King’s feature directorial debut, One Night in Miami, Goree delivers a knockout performance, bringing both a swagger and a vulnerability to his portrayal of the boxing champion.

The film, which premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, takes place largely over the course of one night in 1964, following Clay’s famous defeat of Sonny Liston to take home the title of World Heavyweight Champion in Miami. Based on a play, the film depicts the reunion that night of Clay with three other American icons: activist Malcolm X, athlete Jim Brown and singer Sam Cooke, all of whom were close friends in real life. Larger-than-life public figures though they might be, the film humanizes them by imagining the private conversations about racial justice, duty and Black empowerment that may have taken place between them amid the political and social turmoil of the ’60s.

Goree, who had auditioned years earlier to play Clay in a different film that never got made, says he never let go of his dream to play the boxer on screen one day. “I said ‘I’m going to keep working on this because at some point there will be another opportunity to play Cassius and I want to be prepared,” he tells FASHION over the phone. So he continued training with boxing coaches as well as dialect coaches, and when the opportunity came just a couple of years later, he was ready. “I got in to see Regina on my second audition and felt more than prepared from all those years of training. And then she took it to another level with her expertise and her ability to make things very human and not make them just a performance or just an imitation. ”

Watch the One Night in Miami trailer below and read on for our interview with Eli Goree.

Muhammad Ali is such an iconic figure and cultural icon. What did you love the most about playing him?

People for years have told me I look like a young Cassius Clay. Obviously he’s someone that had a huge impact not just on the Black community but on the world in general. He was a magnanimous figure who spoke his mind, who was fearless and uncensored, and not afraid to stand up for what he believed and pay the consequences for what he believed if necessary. I think there’s a lot to take from his experience and his example in terms of how to be unapologetically bold and confident yet at the same time humble and loving and gracious to others who don’t have the same opportunities. He really was a unique person in history and he touched so many lives. I’m glad this film was just about one night because you can’t really capture his whole life in a two-hour film but you can take one special moment and maybe give some insight into that moment and that’s really what this film did well.


What was the hardest thing to nail about him?

It was a challenge all around. I had an idea of his rhythm and his cadence, it’s very famous and many people have heard it. He didn’t have a standard American accent, he had a unique and particular accent from Louisville, Kentucky. So Trey Cotton, my dialect coach, was really instrumental in getting the Southern accent done first, and then we put the Ali-isms in the speech. And the boxing itself—learning how to stay on your toes and the jab movements… There was a lot of training. I put on 20 pounds of muscle. You can never fully emulate someone who was the best ever at what he did but you want to honour and respect it, and create a sense of authenticity so when people watch it they don’t get taken out of the story. It was a big undertaking and I really gave it my all. 



Not only were you starring with some incredible actors [Leslie Odom Jr, Kingsley Ben-Adir and Aldis Hodge] but you were being directed by a total legend, Regina King. What was it like working with her?

As much as she’s awarded and acclaimed for her acting, I won’t be surprised if at the end of her career as an artist she’s more remembered for her directing because she’s so meticulous, she’s so gracious, she pays attention to detail, she knows how to communicate with actors and get performances, she knows how to communicate to crews and focus on different things. She’s the real deal. She’s an incredible person.


This movie was set in the ’60s but the conversations about racial equality and justice are just as relevant (and necessary) even today. What do you think about the film’s timing now in 2020, and where it kind of fits into the larger cultural conversation?

As a Black man this movie is really relevant at any point in my life. Now, with social media and camera phones and 24-hour news cycles, a lot of people who haven’t seen these things happening are starting to see these things. When it comes to police brutality and social inequity for African-Americans in regard to the justice system and policing, that’s been a constant throughout American history, throughout Western civilization since slavery. I do think that right now it’s good to have this film because it really creates a conversation in a public forum amongst Black men that I don’t know that we’ve heard, at least not in this generation. With everything that’s happening politically and socially, it gets at all the different sides of the argument. You have Sam Cooke, who’s overcoming oppression through economic independence; you have Jim Brown, who’s overcoming oppression through resisting stereotypes; Cassius Clay, by literally fighting and beating up every single person who gets put in front of him to be able to say ‘I’m mentally and physically fit’; and Malcolm X, who says we should be able to determine our own future as a nation of people. I think that this film was made with excellence, with attention to detail and with truth. So those statements and thoughts and arguments put forth will resonate.



What I like about the film is that it really feels like you’re listening to a conversation between friends. There’s obviously such a specificity to the Black experience but there’s also a universality to it. You can imagine friends of different backgrounds having these conversations.

When you deal with humanity and injustice for a group of people, it ends up being something that can resonate with lots of different people. With this film, it’s okay and it’s important to say ‘yes it’s about these Black men who are dealing with these issues,’ but you can feel empathy for that and you can relate to that because anyone who’s ever experienced injustice or oppression knows that it’s a feeling they don’t want to go through and knows that that’s something that no group of people should have to endure. It speaks specifically to this issue but it also resonates with people from all different walks of life. 





Loads of sparkle gives editor Mickey Boardman’s look a lift.

“Sequins are great to wear for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” announces Mickey Boardman while sitting cross-legged in his Lower Manhattan apartment. It’s a cozy boîte that explodes with colour and kitsch from every available space, thanks to his predilection for anything rainbow-hued and charmingly retro.

As the editorial director of Paper magazine, where he interned in the early 1990s while still a fashion student at Parsons The New School, Boardman has been a fixture on the international style scene for over two decades. When he was younger, he was the only person he knew who had a Members Only jacket, and he splurged on a pair of Saint Laurent pants. As he acclimatized to New York’s vivacious nightlife scene, his signature style morphed into “a shell top or ladies’ blouse with some kind of hand-painted print” along with a chandelier necklace and pants that he had cut into clam diggers. The finishing touches were Pearl River Mart flip-flops “and a weird bag,” he says.

Today, Boardman is known for ensembles that combine casual items like Lacoste polo shirts (of which he purports to own hundreds) with dazzlingly tactile pieces, primarily of the sequined variety. It’s no surprise that Boardman, who was born in 1966, has a penchant for high-octane glamour. “I loved Bob Mackie, I loved The Carol Burnett Show and I loved Cher,” he says about the early influences on his taste for anything flashy. “I call my aesthetic ‘1960s Supremes in Las Vegas.’”

With its abundance of sequins, bugle beads and crystal-encrusted accoutrements, Boardman’s wardrobe could easily outshine the costume closets of many showgirls. Flashy shoes, cardigans, trousers, necklaces, brooches… If it has bling factor, Boardman will wear it; he owns dozens of embellished pieces by brands like Lanvin, Junya Watanabe, Dries Van Noten, Gucci and H&M’s Conscious.

However, there is one name that appears more than the others in Boardman’s closet. He has a growing stockpile of glittering delights made by London-based designer Ashish Gupta, including a customized match- ing shirt and bomber jacket emblazoned with his nickname, “Mr. Mickey.” Boardman recalls a show of Gupta’s that he saw during London Fashion Week; it was the designer’s Spring 2015 collection, which contained pieces featuring the faces of Kim Kardashian (before she became Paper’s internet-breaking muse), Kanye West and the members of One Direction – all made with sequins. “My brain was exploding,” he says.

Gupta has an unparalleled ability to create intricate and flamboyant designs, drawing influence from his ancestral India as well as pop culture references; his Fall 2017 collection contained pieces emblazoned with meme-able phrases like “More Glitter Less Twitter.” His mishmash of inspirations intrigues Boardman, who is himself a culture enthusiast. Boardman is also what you’d describe as a fierce fan of fashion – the resplendence and individuality of it all. “I worship anyone who’s committed to their look, whether that’s Rick Owens or Lynn Yaeger or Catherine Baba,” he says.

An obsession with the power of style and the persona has been a lifelong one for Boardman. He grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, flicking through fashion magazines while in his preteen years. He fondly recalls his mother’s evening aesthetic in the ’70s, which included a floor-length vest, bell bottoms and platform shoes, and the first two purchases he ever made at Barneys New York: a Missoni sweater and an Emilio Pucci shirt. (Prior to that, most of his eclectic wardrobe items came from thrift shops.) And he remembers exactly what he wore on the first day of first grade: a pink shirt with monkey heads printed on it and maroon pants featuring a fish motif. Boardman truly relished any opportunity to make a fabulous statement. “When I was four, I asked to be Cinderella for Halloween,” he says.

Despite many of his fledgling fashion dreams being indulged, Boardman has faced challenges in living out his sartorial fantasies because of his weight. He’s a member of WW (formerly Weight Watchers) and works with a personal trainer and does yoga to stay healthy. One Chicago-based retailer has become his fashion fairy godmother. Ikram Goldman, whose eponymous boutique has become a favourite outpost for those seeking eye-catching designs, has been instrumental in teaching Boardman that with a little tailoring, the world can be his oyster. “She wanted to give me a present around Christmas one year,” says Boardman, but he couldn’t fit into anything in her shop.

After he pointed to a sparkly Proenza Schouler top and lamented that it wouldn’t work for him, Goldman replied, “Oh yeah?” Boardman did a fitting with a tailor Goldman brought in, and panels were added to the sides of the shirt. “It was a shock; it opened things up to me,” says Boardman. “Ikram has ordered extra fabric from Ashish and other designers for me, and she can make anything fit any person.”

The Proenza Schouler top that Boardman acquired from Goldman features prominently in a story that speaks volumes about his status as a style icon. “I was at this glamorous party,” he recalls. “It was an uptown thing – I was shocked I was even invited.” Boardman wore the shirt that night, with his tuxedo, and at one point realized that another guest, actress Liv Tyler, was wearing the same top.

“I prefer women’s clothes because they’re fabulous, not because I want to be a woman or have a gender issue,” he explains. The Tyler sighting made Boardman feel quite chuffed, but one of fashion’s most beloved stars would give him an even bigger boost that evening. When event and street-style photographer Bill Cunningham noticed Boardman’s ensemble, he immediately asked if he could take Boardman’s picture with another fashionista at the party. “He asked if I had seen Iris Apfel,” says Boardman, “and dragged me around to find her.” Afterwards, Cunningham sent Boardman a photocopy of the duo’s picture with a note written on it that couldn’t be more fitting: “This is fashion.”