Chadwick Boseman plays T’Challa/Black Panther in “Black Panther.” | Film Frame, Marvel Studios
The actor, who died Friday, played a number of meaningful roles
Chadwick Boseman passed away over the weekend. His death sent shockwaves across the world — a young actor who had ascended the acting ladder dying at the young age of 43 — especially since it wasn’t well known he had been diagnosed with colon cancer.
It was a moment that caused the country to pause. America had lost someone who highlighted moral decency and represented a shift in Black representation in the entertainment industry, which could lead to a change in how Hollywood casts Black actors, experts said.
Boseman’s death made national headlines. Celebrities from all around the world mourned him. LeBron James paid tribute to him during the NBA’s return on Saturday night. Former President Barack Obama paid his respects, as well.
Marvel fans wondered what this meant for the future of the “Black Panther” franchise. Americans immediately searched for how to watch his movies on streaming services.
And ABC aired “Black Panther” on Sunday night without commercials, adding a special presentation to honor the late actor. “Avengers” stars Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Winston Duke, Forest Whitaker, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Olsen and more all appeared to speak about Boseman. Robert Downey Jr. praised Boseman during the special, too, according to Deadline.
“Just the way he walked on set … he was having this immense success, in a strata of his own, humble hardworking, always smile on his face,” he said.
But Boseman meant something more to the Black community. Who he portrayed in his films — King T’Challan in “Black Panther” or Jackie Robinson in “42” — meant something to the wider community.
For “Black Panther,” Boseman represented one of the first Black superheroes with his or her own film. We’ve seen Wesley Snipes as “Blade” and Halle Barry appeared as Storm in the “X-Men” movies. But Boseman’s time as Black Panther came right at the peak of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film was widely loved by critics and fans alike. His appearance showed us true representation of the Black community in an entertainment mega giant.
“That film will go down in history as the film that perhaps changed the way Hollywood treats films with predominantly Black casts globally,” wrote Kelley L. Carter of The Undefeated. “Never has dark-skinned blackness looked as beautiful as it did in Ryan Coogler’s masterpiece — we were filmed the way we should have always been filmed, the gorgeousness of our hues bouncing off the silver screen and a budget that rivals the types of budgets that Black filmmakers have never been able to touch before that moment.”
But Boseman’s other roles shouldn’t be ignored either. He played Robinson — the first Black baseball player in Major League Baseball. He played historic singer James Brown. He filled the role of a lawyer as Thurgood Marshall. And he played Stormin’ Norman, a squad leader in Vietnam.
No matter how you look at the young star’s career, he has filled roles that defined Black history and Black culture. And he did in a way that promoted positive moral authority and dignity. He did it with a sense of softness and delicacy.
“He portrayed with grace and mastery both the icons of our past and the superheroes who helped us imagine different futures. He gave us so much. And for that I am immensely grateful,” wrote Clint Smith of The Atlantic.
Boseman was the first to say that he didn’t like being the hit Black actor of the moment. He thought there should be more — there should be multiple Black men in leading roles.
“There was a period of time where it was Sidney Poitier is the guy,” he said, according to The Undefeated. “And very often, people will come to me or some of the other guys that are doing well right now and they say, ‘They’re going to pass the torch to you.’ And I don’t think that’s right, because it’s possible for there to be a Chris Pine, or a Chris Evans and Chris O’Donnell and a Chris Hemsworth and all the other Chrises, but it can only be one of us at a time? That is part of what’s wrong. There’s so much material for white actors that (Hollywood) has to manufacture stars, sometimes before they’re even ready to be stars. And they will put up billboards before people even know who they are. You’ll be like, ‘Who’s that? Who’s that person?’ But with us, it’s like we have to kill each other before we get there.”
But there may be more to Boseman that just the roles he played. He’s not just a representative of Black heroes. He has brought his inspiration off the screen as well. For example, he visited St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee in 2018, bringing children toys and offering the inspiration, according to CNN.
Boseman also kept in contact with two young boys who had cancer while he filmed “Black Panther.” The boys — who were terminally ill — told Boseman they wanted to live long enough to see the film.
“I realized they anticipated something great,” Boseman said at the time, according to CNN. “It put me back in the mind of being a kid just to experience those two little boys’ anticipation of this movie. ... It means a lot.”
He was more than the king or baseball legend he played on screen.
“That’s what makes Chadwick Boseman so important to the Black community,” Kareem Abdul Jabbar wrote for The Hollywood Reporter. “He was and is a celluloid monument as powerful as the Lincoln Memorial, a visual manifestation of the qualities African Americans strive for, so that his name itself conjures the image of a Black man with integrity and courage. Someone devoted to truth and an unwillingness to compromise his principles.”
He even kept his cancer a secret. He continued to work throughout his cancer diagnosis, refusing to share his ailment as a way to remain as a hero on the screen.
“The death of someone so young and vital is always a blow because it yanks our own mortal coil with a fearful snap,” Abdul Jabbar wrote. “But this is worse because Boseman consistently played characters that gave Black community pride and hope. We came out of his movies with straighter spines and wider smiles. We would look at each other and nod, feeling like we were part of something bigger than ourselves, something that went back generations to a whole different continent. We saw a whole history of our people’s struggles and triumphs shining in the bright eyes of one indomitable man.”
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/3jwuDu9
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