Chadwick Boseman's Last Appearance In Emotional Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Chadwick Boseman as Levee (Netflix)

JAKARTA - Streaming service Netflix released the film Ma Rainey's Black Bottom on Friday, December 18. This film will be Chadwick Boseman's last project before he passed away in August.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom tells Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) who is nicknamed Mother of the Blues with her band at a recording session in Chicago in 1920. In this film, Chadwick Boseman plays Levee, a trumpet player who has a crush on Rainey's girlfriend.

In addition, Levee is an ambitious figure to start his solo career in the music industry. He had ambitions to have his own band and did not want white people to manage his career but this was the source of the band's division.

The reason is, this incident made Levee remember his past eight years which caused trauma.

Chadwick Boseman's Last Project

Chadwick Boseman's acting as a selfish figure has attracted attention. His expression shows emotion as a trumpet player who wants to seek attention for his own work. Envious of Ma Rainey's performance, he is determined to hijack every Rainey stage so that the producers' attention will focus on him.

No one would have thought that Chadwick Boseman was filming in the midst of battling last-stage colon cancer for the past four years. Through an official statement from the Boseman family, the actor shot everything from the Marshall film Da 5 Bloods to Ma Rainey's Black Bottom while undergoing countless chemotherapy and surgeries.

According to Michael Greene of the Greene & Associates Talent Agency, Chadwick Boseman doesn't want people to worry about his health. There are only a few people who know about Boseman's disease apart from his family, namely Greene, his production partner Logan Coles and personal trainer Addison Henderson.

Henderson, who is friends with Boseman, even made special preparations so that the T'Challa actor could act with his weakened physical condition. From gaining weight for the Black Panther to losing weight for Marshall, everything was done to make Boseman look his best.

“He (Chadwick Boseman) is really sick. But he did not hold back because he felt working with producer Denzel (Washington) and releasing August Wilson's work on Netflix is a happy thing, "said Greene quoted Biography.

Cannot wait for the world to see MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM in two days. Every scene of this film is a lush, rich work of art. Every performance is packed with deep feeling, longing, pain and joy. pic.twitter.com/HFAdhd5K5S

- NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) December 16, 2020

Had Crying

There was one touching incident on the set during the production of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Launching The Independent, director George C. Wolfe revealed that Chadwick Boseman had cried on the set.

In this scene, the character Levee, played by Boseman, attacks Cutler (Colman Domingo) for his beliefs. Levee is questioning the existence of God amidst the difficulties he experiences with a monologue.

During the rehearsal, Wolfe allowed Boseman to narrate according to the script but he continued to speak and became emotional. "After that, Chadwick started crying and Colman gave him a hug," said Wolfe.

He was so moved, Chadwick Boseman was picked up by his lover because he couldn't stop crying. Leeve's dialogue really thrills Boseman, especially since this film focuses on the career path of black musicians.

George C. Wolfe felt Chadwick Boseman's expertise in acting and had a deep sense of charisma and emotions.

Wolfe was shocked and saddened by Chadwick's departure in the middle of the post-production film Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. "But everything I feel about his work in film, is a source of great joy," he told the Observer.

Because of this, Wolfe continues to have memories of working with Chadwick Boseman. "The sadness I feel is true and profound, but on the other hand there is a sense of pride and joy at Chadwick Boseman's work."

The film Ma Rainey's Black Bottom can be watched via Netflix.