The massive success of Black Panther at the box office this year has brought Chadwick Boseman into the limelight. The actor’s portrayal of Wakandan king T’Challa has received a lot of appreciation from fans as well as critics.
During the Hollywood Reporter’s actors’ roundtable, when Boseman was asked what was the toughest thing about playing Black Panther, he said showcasing the history and real culture of a person of African descent was quite a challenging task.
“For me it was the fact that as a person of African descent, this searching for what my real culture is, living that and believing that space and showing that on screen and just being able to give that to an audience, to say that ‘I know so much about my past, I know so much about my history.’ Which, as an African-American, I’ve searched for that my entire life. But to be a person that didn’t have to search for it,” Boseman said.
The Black Panther actor addressed the fact that a lot of black people growing up in the United States have no knowledge of their origin and histories that they can look up, pointing back to which country their families came from.
“Having that is something that you’re like, ‘Oh not only do I know, but I value it,’ like there’s a certain patriotism to something that has never been lost. It’s ancient and being able to hold on to that it was something that throughout the movie, I was like, wow,” Boseman said. “The weight of that, it’s something that I have to convey to the world. Because you could do that movie and it’s a parody of that idea, and that is insulting. And so I think, for me, was constantly wanting to convey that this is real.”
Boseman said initially it was hard to believe that the filmmakers wanted to put all their money on a film with mostly a black cast. He admitted that playing the role of T’Challa aka Black Panther made him more idealistic.
“I never thought I would see a studio say, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna put the money behind this movie with … mostly a black cast,’” Boseman said. “Sometimes we have, we as African-Americans, we have the black version and it’s never as good. They never put as much into it, and so it made me more idealistic and that’s aspirational for not just myself, but for other people. And not just in film but in other arenas.”
Boseman will next reprise the role of the Wakandan king in Avengers 4 which debuts in theaters on May 3, 2019. Marvel Studios is also currently working on a sequel to Black Panther which is yet to be officially announced.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
