Chadwick Boseman's life and career to be celebrated in new Netflix special
The late Chadwick Boseman is set to be honoured in an upcoming Netflix documentary which celebrates the screen icon’s life and career.
The one-off special, called Portrait of An Artist, will drop on Netflix on Saturday (April 17) and has been teased with a trailer which sees the actor discussing his career prior to his untimely death in August 2020.
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“I am an artist. People call me an actor. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself an actor. I would call myself an artist,” he says.
The likes of Viola Davis, who starred with Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, also praise Boseman’s “extraordinary commitment to his craft” in the one-off special.
Chadwick Boseman’s collaborators invite us into a conversation about his extraordinary artistic process.
Chadwick Boseman: Portrait of an Artist Special premieres April 17. pic.twitter.com/vm0thspKNQ
— Netflix (@netflix) April 13, 2021
Davis comments in the trailer: “You know you have to step up when you’re in his presence. He’s looking at your work and he’s, like, really hyper-focused, on the craft, on the process. That’s Chad.”
The likes of Denzel Washington and Spike Lee also contribute, with Lee praising Boseman for having “this weight, this aura” to his acting.
Others participating in the special include Brian Helgeland, Reginald Hudlin, Aakomon “AJ” Jones, Woodie King Jr, Branford Marsalis, Andile Nebulane, Taylour Paige, Phylicia Rashad, Tate Taylor, Glynn Turman and George C Wolfe.
Boseman is currently nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars, having picked up a posthumous nomination for his role as Levee in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. He previously won the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama, with his widow, Taylor Simone Ledward, accepting the award on his behalf.
Elsewhere, Boseman’s Black Panther co-star Lupita Nyong’o recently she hasn’t “come to terms” with the star’s death.