In a lengthy, emotional tribute to Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther director Ryan Coogler said the late actor was a man of faith and dignity, and someone who lived a beautiful life while making great art.
Boseman, who attained global stardom as King T'Challa of fictitious African country Wakanda aka superhero Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, died Friday of colon cancer at his residence in Los Angeles with his wife and family by his side. He was 43.
The actor fought a secret battle with the disease for four years, Boseman''s family said in a statement posted on his official Twitter handle on Saturday.
Coogler revealed he "wasn't privy to the details of his illness", adding Boseman was "living with his illness the entire time I knew him".
Chadwick Boseman with Ryan Coogler | Image from Twitter
"Day after day, year after year. That was who he was. He was an epic firework display. I will tell stories about being there for some of the brilliant sparks till the end of my days. What an indelible mark he's left for us," the filmmaker said in a statement on Sunday obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
The director, who is set to helm the sequel to 2018's Black Panther due to be released in 2022, said he spent the last year preparing and writing words for Boseman to say, that "we weren't destined to see".
The director recalled how he "inherited" the actor, who was first cast in Captain America: Civil War by the Russo Brothers, and was in two minds about directing the Black Panther stand-alone.
"His first (scene) with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, then, with the South African cinema titan, John Kani as T'Challa's father, King T'Chaka. It was at that moment I knew I wanted to make this movie. After Scarlett''s character leaves them, Chad and John began conversing in a language I had never heard before.
"It sounded familiar, full of the same clicks and smacks that young black children would make in the (United) States. The same clicks that we would often be chided for being disrespectful or improper. But, it had a musicality to it that felt ancient, powerful, and African."
After he watched Civil War, Coogler asked Nate Moore, one of the producers on the film, about the language.
"Did you guys make it up?" he asked, to which Moore replied, "that''s Xhosa, John Kani''s native language. He and Chad decided to do the scene like that on set, and we rolled with it."
Collaborating with Kani, Boseman learnt Xhosa to make the African language the character's native tongue, and memorised his lines on the spot.
"I couldn't conceive how difficult that must have been, and even though I hadn't met Chad, I was already in awe of his capacity as actor," Coogler added.
From discussions over heritage, what it means to be African, dialogues, costumes, military practices in the film to doing his own stunts, Coogler said Boseman was brimming with ideas that would help them realise their collective vision of Wakanda.
Boseman was last seen in Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods, an urgent film about a group of ageing Vietnam War veterans who return to the country in search of the remains of their fallen squad leader. The cast also includes Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.
Lee reminsced working with Bosemen in an interview with E! : "We filmed Da 5 Bloods in Thailand, and it was hot, jungles, mountains, and Chadwick was there with us all the way. I never, ever suspected that anything was wrong. No one knew he was going through treatment, chemotherapy." He further called Boseman "a trooper", who "was there every single minute, in the moment, and his performance is testament to what he put into that role and all his roles."
The director also shared clips of Boseman from his film, which released on Netflix recently.
Here are Lee's posts
(With inputs from Press Trust of India)
by FP Staff
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