Joseph plays Liston in Prime Video’s The Greatest, the first authorized scripted series about Ali, premiering November 4. Created by Ben Watkins, the eight-episode first season traces Clay’s rise from his 1960 Olympic gold in Rome to the 1964 night he took Liston’s heavyweight title and shocked the world. Jaalen Best stars as Ali, alongside Omari Hardwick as Cassius “Cash” Clay Sr., Dana Gourrier as Odessa “Bird” Clay, Kai Parham as Rudy Clay, Giovanni Ribisi as trainer Angelo Dundee, and Michael Ealy as Malcolm X.
In the Muhammad Ali legend, Sonny Liston is usually cast as the obstacle: the scowling, mob-connected brute a young Cassius Clay had to topple to become a hero. Amin Joseph had no interest in playing that version.
Joseph’s Liston barely speaks, and that restraint is the point. It belongs to a man carrying the shame of being heavyweight champion while the world treated him as a pariah. “What type of cage does one put themselves in when that happens?” Joseph asks. In his conversation with Blex Media, he places Liston in a long line of mistreated Black champions, from Jack Johnson to Liston’s idol Joe Louis, who ended his days beside Liston working as a Las Vegas casino host. Then he draws a straight line from that history to today’s college athletes.