NEED TO KNOW
- Chadwick Boseman’s death on Aug. 28, 2020 came as a shock to many; the actor had been silently battling colon cancer for four years.
- While many recognize the impact he had on film, fewer people talk about his more playful side.
- One interview he did in 2018 alongside Michael B. Jordan remains one of the funniest things you can series.
The day Chadwick Boseman died — Aug. 28, 2020 — remains one of the most shocking events in entertainment history, for me, and many others, who had no clue that Boseman had been ill for years.
I remember opening Instagram and seeing a black-and-white photo of Chadwick Boseman. It was a beautiful three-quarter portrait, featuring the star’s charismatic grin framed by his long, artistic hands — the same smile which accentuated the little scrunch in his nose that I found so endearing. The photo, taken by Off lens host and director Sam Jones, immediately drew me in, and I thought for sure it was being used to announce his next blockbuster role.
The accompanying caption stunned me.
“It is with immeasurable grief that we confirm the passing of Chadwick Boseman,” his family wrote.
They continued: “Chadwick was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016, and battled with it these last 4 years as it progressed to stage IV. A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all, and brought you many of the films you have come to love so much. From Marshall to Da 5 Bloods, August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and several more, all were filmed during and between countless surgeries and chemotherapy.”
I was in pure shock. I had followed Chadwick after watching him portray Jackie Robinson in 2013’s 42. I saw that movie so many times I could recite the dialogue as it went along. I then watched Get On Up and Marshall, and by the time Black Panther premiered in 2018, I was so invested in the Chadwick Boseman movement, I would have gone to series him recite the ABCs on screen.
Tributes started pouring in soon after the announcement came out, and many expressed the same shock that someone so vibrant and powerful on screen could have been privately dealing with a debilitating illness off screen. He had visibly lost a lot of weight, but most fans figured the dedicated actor was preparing for another role.
Chadwick’s death was yet another tough blow in 2020, which had already been a tough year in many ways, including in gut-punching celebrity deaths. Kobe Bryant had unexpectedly died in a helicopter crash that January, Naya Rivera had died in a drowning accident earlier that summer and Kelly Preston had died from breast cancer in July. It felt like so many of the people we looked up to and loved were going in rapid succession, contributing to the anxiety and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. (We didn’t know it yet, but Alex Trebek would follow, delivering another gut-punch in November).
Of all the tributes that came in, though, one has stayed with me in the five years since his Chadwick’s death. On Sept. 9, 2020, his Black Panther costar, Michael B. Jordan posted an interview clip the pair had done with Kerrang! Radio, while promoting the record-breaking film in 2018.
The host invited the two friends to participate in the show’s “compliments game,” in which guests are required to compliment each other. You can be sincere, but the game is more fun if you’re playfully shady. You have to look at your opponent in the eye while doing it and the win goes to the person who manages not to laugh.
Michael went first.
“I really appreciate the way your beard somewhat connects —” Jordan barely got the sentence out before Chadwick burst into laughter at the backhanded compliment. His laugh was a sharp cackle that in all my years following him, I don’t know if I had heard.
He seemed to get a real kick out of the “somewhat connects” portion of the sentence, and Michael had to explain, “‘I’m just projecting because I can’t really grow [a beard] the way I want, so I was jealous. I was just jealous.”
After some fits of laughter and a very feeble attempt at regaining composure, Chadwick took his turn: “I really appreciate how your eyebrows have a life of their own…” Again, the two friends couldn’t get through the full before breaking into laughter.
Getty Images for Disney
“The funny thing is that it’s like a running joke in my family that eyebrows really do their own thing, and the fact that he went directly for eyebrows made it that much funnier,” Jordan said, barely getting his words out.
Chadwick Boseman was serious. About life, about legacy, about his work and the impact it would have on the next generation. Black Panther seems to have been the pinnacle of his career; it inspired so many little Black boys (and Black people overall) to see themselves as heroes and portrayed us outside of a stereotypical lens. “It was the honor of his career to bring T’Challa to life in Black Panther,” his family wrote in their tribute mention prior.
So, to see him have this moment of levity is still so heartwarming for me. Especially when I remember it happened as he was literally fighting for his life. He seems comfortable and loose with Michael.
In the full interview, his answers were still very thoughtful, but more comforting for me was the realization that even as he was fighting cancer, it wasn’t all sadness and gloom. He also managed to have fun through it all and my guess is that there were so many more moments like that, which remain preserved in his loved ones’ memories.
Every time I’ve revisited this clip in the last five years, I can’t help but wish we could have spent more time with that Chadwick Boseman. His lasting image is that of a larger-than-life icon with serious impact on the film industry and a legacy of inspiration, and he was all that and more: He was also human, and a dive down YouTube will show you he had plenty more unserious moments that are equally worth celebrating.
About the Author
