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There’s a story Andy Serkis loved to tell during the press tour of Black Panther. By March 2017, more than 700 crew members, and 150 vehicles, had gathered in Busan, South Korea, to film the film’s great chase sequence, with T’Challa / Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) chasing to Ulysses Klaue (Serkis). , an arms dealer who smuggles precious vibranium. It ends with Black Panther catching Klaue and subjecting him with a quick knee to the chest.
“It was a nighttime photoshoot and the first shot he kneed me so hard in the chest, because I couldn’t really see with the mask on,” Serkis recalled. “I felt like I had broken my ribs in that first take.”
By Serkis’s count, they ended up filming the scene at least thirty times, with Boseman, who had trained extensively in Angolan capoeira, Dambe boxing, Zulu stick fighting, karate, kung-fu, and jiu-jitsu for the role, giving it his all. every time.
Even under normal circumstances, the task was extraordinary. But we learned on Friday night that Boseman, 43, made it while battling colon cancer.
“It is with immeasurable pain that we confirm the passing of Chadwick Boseman,” the statement read. “Chadwick was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016 and battled with it for the past four years as he progressed to stage IV. A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all and brought you many of the movies that you have loved so much. Of Marshall to Give 5 Bloods, By August Wilson Ma Rainey’s black ass and several others, all were filmed during and between countless surgeries and chemotherapy. ”
Projecting such incredible power and strength when you’re so exhausted is almost unfathomable. But Boseman did. He became a global screen icon, greeting audiences around the world, while privately fighting for his life. And make no mistake: he was a movie star, possessed effortless charm and charisma.
Boseman did not come from considerable means. She was born in Anderson, South Carolina, to a nurse and textile worker. Basketball was her first love, and she was recruited to play college ball, until a tragedy at her school changed her course: her teammate was shot to death. Boseman responded by writing a play in honor of the boy, Crossingand stage it at school.
“I just had a feeling that this was something that was calling me,” he said. Rolling Stone. “Suddenly playing basketball wasn’t that important.”
He attended Howard University to study directing, and also took acting classes. When he was accepted into the summer program at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford to study theater, he couldn’t afford it, so one of his teachers, Phylicia Rashad (from The Cosby Show fame), requested a donation from an anonymous celebrity to go. There, she honed her craft and, upon graduation, moved to Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, where she immersed herself in the local theater scene; To earn money, she taught children to act at the Schomburg Center in Harlem.
“He’s a hard worker and an artist … “
– Octavia Spencer on Chadwick Boseman
Bit parts in TV series like Law and CSI: New York It followed, and in 2008, he moved to Los Angeles to dabble in film. After a couple of arcs in the shows. Lincoln Heights and Unknown people, got his big break, landing the role of baseball legend Jackie Robinson in the biopic 42. While the movie was Disney fluff, you couldn’t take your eyes off Boseman, who expertly captured Robinson’s inner battle of projecting grace in the face of endless hatred.
For this writer’s money, Boseman’s most electrifying twist came Get up, the 2014 James Brown biopic. Although he showed little physical resemblance to the “Godfather of Soul,” he managed, through hundreds of hours of vocal and dance training, to embody his essence. I had the honor of profiling Boseman for the film, and in our brief time together, I found him cute, witty (you have to see his hilarious Karen with the potato salad SNL sketch), and deeply introspective.
“He’s a hard worker and an artist,” Oscar winner Octavia Spencer, who plays Brown’s aunt, told me about Boseman. “The success of the movie begins and ends with Chadwick’s credibility as James Brown, and he really pulls it off.”
While Get up earned him the Oscar award, Black Panther made him a superstar and, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first major black superhero, an inspiration to millions of black boys and girls.
“It was the honor of his career to bring King T’Challa to life in Black Panther“Said the aforementioned statement. “He died at home, with his wife and family by his side. The family thanks you for your love and prayers, and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time. ”
Boseman’s latest film is Ma Rainey’s black ass, an adaptation of the August Wilson play of the same name that will be released later this year by Netflix. And it is produced by Denzel Washington, the man who, years later, Boseman would discover that he paid for his trip to Oxford.
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