By Randi Richardson
âBlack Pantherâ director Ryan Coogler recently described his last conversation with Chadwick Boseman âa couple weeksâ before the actorâs death in 2020.
In the new podcast âWakanda Forever: The Official Black Panther Podcast,â which launched Thursday, author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates interviewed Coogler, who directed the original film and the sequel, which premieres next Friday. Boseman played the titular character, aka King TâChalla, in the first movie; he died of colon cancer at age 43 in August 2020.
âMy last conversation with him was calling to ask if he wanted to read (the script) before I got notes from the studio. That was the last time we spoke. He passed maybe a couple weeks after I finished,â Coogler said in the premiere episode of the podcast.
Coogler, choking back emotions, took a moment to pause and collect himself.
âHe was tired, bro,â Coogler continued. âI could tell he was tired.â
Coogler, 36, said he had been trying to contact Boseman to no avail.
âIâd been trying to get a hold of him for a few days, and Denzel had been trying to get a hold of him, too,â the director said, referring to Denzel Washington, who was a producer on âMa Raineyâs Black Bottom,â Bosemanâs last movie. So Coogler decided to text him.
Boseman called him shortly after. âI could tell he was laying down when we were talking. And Simone (Ledward Boseman, his wife) was with him, and he kicked Simone out because he told her he didnât want her to hear nothing that could get him in trouble with his (nondisclosure agreement),â Coogler said while chuckling.
âShe didnât want to leave him, so I could tell something was up,â he remembered. Still, Coogler said the two were âjoking and laughingâ and that Boseman talked about how they were planning their wedding in South Carolina.
The couple was already legally married at the time, but they never had the wedding ceremony they were planning.
Coogler said Boseman âasked about my kidâ because he had missed the baby shower. He said the actor didnât want to read the new script because he âdidnât want to get in the wayâ of whatever notes the studio might have or the like.
âBut I found out later that he was too tired to read anything,â Coogler said.
Two days after Boseman died, Coogler wrote a heartfelt note about Boseman and sent it to media outlets. He said, in part, âI spent the last year preparing, imagining and writing words for him to say, that we werenât destined to see. It leaves me broken knowing that I wonât be able to watch another close-up of him in the monitor again or walk up to him and ask for another take.â
Instead of being done with the script, Coogler had to go back to the drawing board when Marvel decided not to recast the character. He reworked the movie into a eulogy to the character and the actor who played him while also keeping the remaining cast members spirited and focused on their charactersâ goals.
Angela Bassett played Bosemanâs mother, Ramonda (affectionally called Queen Mother), in âBlack Pantherâ and is reprising her role in the sequel. She told TODAY at Glamourâs Women of the Year Awards show on Nov. 1 that the new movie is âexhilarating.â
âWe stood proud. We stood strong, and we did exactly what he wouldâve done,â she said.