Ryan Coogler Reveals ‘Black Panther’ Star Hardest Hit By Chadwick Boseman’s Death

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Ironically, out of all the stars of 2018’s “Black Panther,” it was the man who played T’Challa’s worst enemy – Michael B. Jordan who played Erik Killmonger – who was impacted the most by the death of Chadwick Boseman. That’s what filmmaker Ryan Coogler said recently on The Breakfast Club while promoting his horror movie “Sinners.”

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“Out of all of my actors, Chad’s death actually hit Mike (Jordan) the hardest,” Coogler said.

Coogler continued, talking about Boseman’s presence among the cast and crew. “He was a fully baked man from the South,” Coogler said. “He was an old school man’s man and compared to that dude when we worked together bro, me and Mike was kids.”

In one interesting example of how Boseman worked his craft, Coogler talked about when a visiting Disney executive was disturbed by the fact that even when the cameras weren’t rolling, Boseman kept speaking in an African accent.

“They was freaked out and I was like, ‘Don’t be freaked out, he working man,'” Coogler recalled. “‘He don’t turn it off till we wrap.'”

According to Coogler, the late Boseman managed to teach him and Jordan a lot just by example. “He was the kind of teacher who you never knew you was getting a lesson when he taught,” Coogler said. “It was all by example and what he gave me and Michael was patience.”

“He moved at an old-school pace and he took his time [but] he was always early. He was that type of dude. And Mike will tell you this, I told him man, I said, ‘Hey bro, what would Chad do in this role? If he had this role what would he do?’ ‘Cause Chad never broke action.”

Chadwick Boseman tragically died of colon cancer in 2020. He was 43 years old.

In spite of his illness, Boseman continued to work even after his diagnosis, mostly suffering in silence as far as other cast and crew were concerned. After “Black Panther,” he appeared twice more as his signature superhero character T’Challa/Black Panther in 2018’s “Avengers: Infinity War” and later in 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame.” During that time he also made the action thriller “21 Bridges,” the war drama “Da 5 Bloods,” and the 2020 drama “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

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