Viola Davis made her feelings quite clear Thursday on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: She misses Chadwick Boseman almost unbearably.
So close to unbearably that — even though it’s been more than five years since his death — Boseman’s co-star in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” started her speech at his star dedication ceremony by saying she couldn’t refer to him as “gone” and couldn’t link the word “death” to his memory.
“Chadwick, you channeled the divine,” said Davis, 60. “You were a conduit, a source of connectiveness that every single human being … that is on this Earth is searching for. Trying to connect to each other, trying to connect to our art, trying to know — like the Cherokee birth blessing — may we live long enough to understand why we were born.
“That was Chadwick. More than just an actor who you can observe onscreen doing wonderful work. It was work that reminded us that we are less alone.”
Boseman got his one Oscar nomination, posthumously, for his lead actor performance as Levee in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Davis was also nominated for her portrayal of Ma Rainey.
“It’s best to use all of life. Leave death nothing but the dregs. Nothing but a burned-out castle. And Chadwick was a castle,” Davis told the crowd that assembled in Hollywood despite the threat of rain. “Chadwick was a mighty, mighty elixir that sort of stirred up that alchemy that we’re all in search of, which is meaning.”
Boseman died at age 43 from colon cancer, a four-year battle he kept from the public until his death on Aug. 28, 2020.
“A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all and brought you many of the films you have come to love so much,” read the statement his team posted online that Friday. “From ‘Marshall’ to ‘Da 5 Bloods,’ August Wilson’s ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ and several more, all were filmed during and between countless surgeries and chemotherapy. It was the honor of his career to bring King T’Challa to life in ‘Black Panther.’”
Boseman’s star, the 2,828th on the Walk of Fame, is at 6904 Hollywood Blvd., in front of the Hollywoodland Experience store.
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