“This is not Malcolm’s story.” Ealy and Parham on brotherhood, mentorship and the self-doubt behind the swagger
Before he was the Greatest, he was somebody’s little brother’s hero and somebody’s protégé. In The Greatest, those two relationships carry the story’s quietest weight.
Kai Parham plays Rudy Clay, later Rahman Ali, the younger brother who sparred with Cassius every day. That bond, Parham says, was built the same way off camera: “It’s easy to get close to someone who’s punching you in the face Monday through Friday.” Michael Ealy joins a long list of actors who have played Malcolm X, and he came in with a clear rule: this is Ali’s story. His Malcolm is defined by the young fighter he guides into the Nation of Islam, with rare glimpses of Malcolm at home with his wife, Betty Shabazz.
Both actors walked away with a different picture of Ali: sensitive, vulnerable, and, before the legend hardened, unsure whether he was destined for greatness at all. They tell Blex Media what that side of him reveals, and give their own answers to the question the title asks.