Chief Curator
Earlier, we announced the unfortunate passing of superstar actor, Chadwick Boseman to cancer. While the world mourns, we take a look at some of the remarkable facts about him that are not very common knowledge:
1) While he was born in America to African American parents, DNA testing showed that his ancestors were Krio and Limba people Sierra Leone and Yoruba people from Nigeria.
2) He originally wanted to write and direct, and initially began studying acting so he could learn how to better relate to actors.Growing up, Chadwick was part of the church choir
3) Chadwick was a vegetarian
4) Chadwick was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016. During his 4 year battle with the disease, all the movies he made were filmed between surgeries and chemotherapy.
5) He was very private. He kept his family and illness very private, and only those closest to him knew. “It’s no one’s business, really. When you talk about that, you become a whole different type of celebrity. Your personal life bleeds into your professional life. I’m an actor, and you know me from who I play. You get a sense of who I am, but you don’t know everything.”
6) He almost gave up on acting, to return to his initial plan – directing and writing. As a matter of fact, he was directing an off-Broadway play in New York’s East Village when he auditioned twice for 42. Despite stiff competition from 25 other actors, the director chose him, and playing Jackie Robinson became his break-out role.
7) He didn’t audition for Black Panther, the role that made him a household name. MCU producer and studio president – Kevin Feige – had seen him in Get On Up and just knew he wanted Chadwick as T’Challa. He offered him the role over the phone and Chadwick accepted.
8) In Black Panther, Chadwick wanted his King T’Challa to speak with an African accent from the very beginning, even though some people told him that it wasn’t a good idea. “There was a time period where people would ask me questions about whether or not an audience could sit through a movie with a lead character that spoke with that accent,” he recalled in an interview. He also added, “The intonations and melodies inside an African accent are just as classical as a British one or a European one.”
