Black Panther director Ryan Coogler is opening up about how Chadwick Boseman’s death affected him and Michael B. Jordan.
Coogler, 38, directed the 2018 film, which saw T’Challa (Boseman) return home to Wakanda to take his place as king. However, Erik Killmonger (Jordan) threatened the balance of power and the safety of others.
Two years after the film’s release in August 2020, Boseman died of colon cancer at 43.
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“Out of all of my actors, Chad’s death actually hit Mike (Jordan) the hardest,” said Coogler, who noted that it was something he previously didn’t have to talk about until his current press tour for Sinners — which Jordan, 38, stars in — during a Monday, April 7, appearance on The Breakfast Club.
“He was a fully baked man from the South,” Coogler said of Boseman, who was born in South Carolina. “He was an old school man’s man and compared to that dude when we worked together bro, me and Mike was kids.”
The movie director said Boseman changed his and Jordan’s life in more ways than one.
“He was the kind of teacher who you never knew you was getting a lesson when he taught,” said Coogler. “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,” he continued.
Coogler recalled a time when an executive from Disney was on set during the filming of Black Panther, and Boseman was still in character and talking in his T’Challa accent.
“They was freaked out and I was like, ‘Don’t be freaked out, he working man. He don’t turn it off till we wrap,’ ” said Coogler.
The director said he used Boseman’s commitment and work ethic, which Jordan saw “up close,” to help them “lock in” while filming their new project.
According to a synopsis, Sinners finds Jordan playing twin brothers who, after leaving their “troubled lives behind,” return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting for them.
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Sinners arrives in theaters on April 18.
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