Taraji P. Henson blacked out during her 'Fight Night' striptease scene (original) (raw)

Don’t ask Taraji P. Henson about her character’s striptease scene in the nerve-racking hostage episode of Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist. She probably wouldn’t be able to recall too much, on account of having blacked out during filming.

“It was difficult dancing in front of all of my peers like that. But that’s when you have to just black out, and that’s what I did,” the star quips to Entertainment Weekly. “I removed myself from the room, mentally.”

Still, the episode — which saw her character forced to do the striptease in front of her fellow hostages at gunpoint — was a blast to film, even though it at times felt never-ending. “I just remember going, ‘We're never going home,’” Henson recalls with a laugh. “Because there were so many moving pieces, but it was fun. The night was exciting. A lot of moving, a lot of running, a lot of action. It helps when you have a fun cast. It was a lively cast."

Taraji P. Henson as Vivian Thomas in 'Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist'.

Peacock

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In Fight Night, Henson plays Vivian Thomas, a former stripper and the right-hand woman of Kevin Hart’s Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams. Based on the iHeart true crime podcast, the star-studded series recounts the wild true story of an armed robbery that took place at a party on the night of Muhammad Ali’s big 1970 comeback fight in Atlanta. What the robbers didn’t realize, though, was that they had targeted “the damn Black mafia,” including Samuel L. Jackson’s Frank Moten, the "Black Godfather" of New York's criminal underworld.

It was the unsuspecting Chicken Man, in an effort to impress Frank and co., who took the reins on hosting the exclusive fight-night after-party, leading Frank to believe the hustler and his enterprising business partner and mistress Vivian were in on the heist. As the body counts rise, a reluctant Chicken Man teams up with his old adversary J.D. Hudson (Don Cheadle), one of the first Black detectives in Atlanta’s desegregated police force who put him behind bars some years ago, to find the culprits and clear his name.

When Henson read the script, it "blew my mind," she says. "Because it was based on real events. I never knew about this heist." It's a knockout story that happens to be rooted in historical significance, too. Ali's big comeback fight against Jerry Quarry became a cultural milestone for the city, contributing to Atlanta's rise as the "Black Mecca." Henson is excited to share that with the masses. "I just want [audiences] to enjoy the birth of Atlanta and get the history lesson, and also see how powerful the community is when we stick together and pull together," she says.

Taraji P. Henson as Vivian Thomas in 'Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist'.

Fernando Decillis/PEACOCK

The first episode reveals that Chicken Man is a dead man walking. What do the final episodes hold for Vivian? Should viewers be worried? “You should be worried for everybody,” says Henson. But rest easy knowing that Vivian is very much a fighter. "She is always going to look out for herself," notes Henson. "She's not a weak link, and she thinks fast on her feet. When you work in the streets, you’ve got to be able to improv, to be quick, because you’re working with shady people."

"Overall, this night changes every character's life," adds Henson. "No one's life is the same after this night. How do they get back to their peace? That's the journey that they're all on.”

New episodes of Fight Night enter the ring Thursdays on Peacock.