Ali: Smith’s performance is the greatest

Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2001 | 10 a.m.

Three-time world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali says the message of his new biographical movie "Ali" is "work hard and believe, and you will be vindicated."

In an interview by telephone from Los Angeles Monday, Ali also told the Sun that actor Will Smith not only studied hard and gained 30 pounds to portray him but also "he turned himself into me."

Ali, who was stripped of his title and denied a boxing license after refusing to be drafted into the Army, was vindicated by the Supreme Court and praised by many for standing up for his religious beliefs even though it cost him the prime of his career during 1967-70. He maintained that the Vietnam War was an immoral, divisive conflict.

Special screenings of "Ali" will be held in four cities -- Friday in Las Vegas, Monday in Washington, D.C., Wednesday in Ali's hometown of Louisville, Ky., and Dec. 20 in Chicago -- with proceeds going to the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville.

The screening Friday at the Palms' Brenden Theaters begins at 5 p.m. Tickets are a donation of $100 or more. For more information, call (310) 914-9100. The movie opens to the public Dec. 25.

Ali, who turns 60 in January, says he has seen "just bits and pieces" of the movie that was produced by Sony's Columbia Studios at a cost of $150 million. It opens nationwide Christmas Day.

Ali's manager Bernie Yuman, a longtime Las Vegan who also manages illusionists Siegfried and Roy, said Ali will attend Friday's local screening. Yuman said director Michael Mann tried to tell the true story of Ali, from his battles in the ring to Ali's fight for his freedom in the Supreme Court.

This will be the second movie about Ali's life. The first film, "Muhammad Ali: The Greatest," was made in 1976 and starred Ali. This time, Smith ("Men in Black" and "Independence Day") plays the brash pugilist who changed the course of sports and world history.

"He acts like me, he talks like me -- and I was not surprised because he is a good actor," said Ali, at times talking in a slurred, barely audible mumble brought on by Parkinson's disease. "He turned himself into me.

"And he's pretty too, but not as pretty as me."

Asked what he thought people should take from the new film, Ali said, "I want to show people in every country in the world that if you work hard and believe, you will be vindicated, just as I was vindicated by the Supreme Court."