*The Wall Street Journal Magazine spoke with legendary director George C. Wolfe about working with Chadwick Boseman on his final role opposite Viola Davis and Colman Domingo in the upcoming Netflix film “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
The film is based on August Wilson’s award-winning play from producer Denzel Washington. The official synopsis from Netflix reads; “Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of an afternoon recording session in 1920s Chicago as a band of musicians await trailblazing performer, the legendary Mother of the Blues, Ma Rainey (Academy Award winner Viola Davis). Boseman plays an ambitious trumpeter named Levee.
Boseman died in August at the age of 43, and and the cast and crew did not know during filming that he had been undergoing treatment for colon cancer.
Check out excerpts below from Wolfe’s coversation with WSJ about working with the “Black Panther” star.
READ MORE: Chadwick Boseman Honored in Disney Plus Update of ‘Black Panther’ Opening Credits (Watch)
Wolfe on the toll Boseman’s performance took on him:
Wolfe says, “We were doing it in a very casual way, and I assumed that when Levee got to the big speech that Chadwick was going to stop. But he didn’t stop. He kept going, and Levee took over—it was raw and explosive. Afterwards, Chadwick just started to sob, and Colman hugged him, and then Chadwick’s girlfriend basically picked him up.” (Boseman and his girlfriend, Taylor Simone Ledward, got married before his death.)
Wolfe on Boseman sharing that he had a secret:
Still, there are moments from last year that have taken on new meaning in retrospect. When Boseman was preparing for a scene in which Levee reveals a scar on his chest, the product of a traumatic episode from his Mississippi childhood, “he talked to me about having a secret, and how intense it is to reveal a secret to someone else, how vulnerable that makes you feel,” Wolfe says.
Wolfe on directing Boseman a particularly raw scene:
There is a scene in the film in which Boseman’s Levee belittles Cutler for being a man of faith, leading to a physical confrontation and a ferocious speech in which Levee angrily looks to the skies and challenges what he calls “Cutler’s God.” In the Lithuanian hall, Wolfe says, “We were doing it in a very casual way, and I assumed that when Levee got to the big speech that Chadwick was going to stop. But he didn’t stop. He kept going, and Levee took over—it was raw and explosive. Afterwards, Chadwick just started to sob, and Colman hugged him, and then Chadwick’s girlfriend basically picked him up.” (Boseman and his girlfriend, Taylor Simone Ledward, got married before his death.)
Coleman Domingo on Boseman during filming:
“I could tell with Chad sometimes, he had something on his mind. He’d walk into a room and he wouldn’t speak to anyone,” says Domingo. After this happened a few times, Domingo playfully chided Boseman, saying in a mock-affronted voice, “Oh, you’re just not going to say hi to anybody?” Boseman grinned and thereafter made a point of shaking Domingo’s hand and giving him a hug every day upon his arrival at work.
Viola Davis on Boseman:
Between takes, Boseman retreated to his trailer to play his djembe, a West African hand drum. “Everything that was in his soul, he poured into his drumming,” she says. “He said he needed it. It was healing for him.”
Wolfe on Boseman participating in the looping process:
Like his fellow actors, Boseman participated in the looping process in May, re-recording bits of dialogue as needed. As he was carrying out his final edits, Wolfe says, “I knew only what I had before me, so there was no weight. There was only the exhilaration of the work.”
Read the full article here.
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