Muhammad Ali on Being Humbled by the Attention

Last weekend, the world lost one of its masters. Muhammad Ali—the boxer, the champion, the spiritual seeker—leaves behind a powerful legacy. Nearly 15 years ago, “The Greatest of All Time” told Oprah that receiving attention late in his life was a humbling experience he seemed very grateful for.

The Oprah Show interview took place in 2001, shortly before the Christmas-Day release of the Michael Mann’s biopic Ali. Oprah sat down with the film’s star, Will Smith, to talk about how he and the filmmakers were trying to say something new about one of the most written about figures on the planet.

“So many aspects of his life have been chronicled for so many years that everyone feels like we know the story,” Will told Oprah. “You feel like you know Muhammad Ali. You’ve seen him be funny, you’ve seen him be angry. You've seen the full spectrum of emotions that any filmmaker would try to capture. You've seen it all. So my question was, ‘What are we going to show? What are we going to put into a movie that would be interesting that people haven't seen already?’ And then after meeting Ali, and the first time we met, he told me I was almost pretty enough to play him, you know?”

Will took the amusing but unexpected jab in stride. “My response was, ‘Man, I'm almost too pretty to play you.' But, I mean, I immediately, I mean, there was so much reverence and so much respect, it just made me nervous to be the dude that messed up the Muhammad Ali story. You know, I didn't want to be that guy.”

“He scared me,” Ali joked. “He’s almost as pretty as me.”

Ultimately, Ali said, he’s touched by that people want to learn more about his story. “It means people who don't really know much about me, it'll tell them more about who I am. They'll understand more about the legend of Muhammad Ali, Cassius Clay, and it's a big honor. It makes me feel good that somebody would take the time to make a movie about my life. It makes a humble feeling.”

Oprah’s interview with Will Smith and Muhammad Ali will re-air on OWN Tuesday, June 7, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.