Danai Gurira wanted to “honour” Chadwick Boseman in ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ by “giving it her all.”
Danai Gurira wanted to honur Chadwick Boseman with Wakanda Forever
The 44-year-old actress starred as Okoye alongside the late actor – who died following a battle with colon cancer in 2020 at the age of 43 – in the 2018 Marvel Cinematic Universe film ‘Black Panther’ and has reprised her role in the sequel, explaining that the whole movie was to continue the “legacy” her former co-star began.
She said: “Ryan [Coogler, director] actually talks you through it first, and then you get the script much later. So I was able to really think about a lot of what he'd told me before. And then, yes, then the script came later, and yeah, it was no small task. It was like, ‘Okay, this is amazing, but this is also a... It's a lot to accomplish. The whole goal of this movie was to honour Chadwick and that was really at the core of why we came back together after we'd lost him, was about honouring him through the legacy he started.
“So, with him as an anchor and the memory of him as such an anchor, it was just knowing that watching him work the last time and how much he gave of himself at all times. You just go into this giving your all as well. And that's how you honour him.”
The ’Avengers: Endgame’ star went on to add that director Ryan – who was also at the helm of the 2018 movie – is very “collaborative” on set and things can “shift” considerably in a small amount of takes.
She told Collider: “He definitely does some pull-asides. He'll come and talk to you, or he will pull you a little to the side. He's very collaborative. When he sees something he's telling you to, ‘Try it this way,” or, ‘Try it that way’ or he's changing up a line with you. He's really in it with you. On the day of, it’s very much that moment in the process, where we're really cooking, is on the day, on the set. And that's where an idea will spark him. There are things that can shift in what you have done over several takes that could shift in the next take because something's clicked and that's exciting.”
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