Chadwick Boseman's legacy is unmatched. The late actor's life and career is being remembered in Netflix's latest documentary, Chadwick Boseman: Portrait of an Artist, which premiered on April 17. In the special, Boseman's costars and friends pay homage to him by exploring his commitment to his craft and looking back at his transcending performances in past films, including Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Black Panther [1]. "I am an artist. People call me an actor," Boseman says in a voiceover. "I wouldn't necessarily call myself an actor. I would call myself an artist."
Boseman died of colon cancer at age 43 [2] in August 2020. Most recently, Marvel confirmed that the actor would not be replaced [3] in the upcoming Black Panther 2. "Chadwick Boseman was an immensely talented actor and an inspirational individual who affected all of our lives professionally and personally," Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said during Disney's Investor Day event. "His portrayal of T'Challa the Black Panther is iconic and transcends iteration of the character in any other medium from Marvel's past."
From Viola Davis to Denzel Washington [4] and Taylour Paige, keep reading to see the most heartfelt quotes from Chadwick Boseman: Portrait of an Artist, which will be available to stream for a limited run of 30 days.
Viola Davis
- "In acting, I'll just say it, most people just wanna be famous actors. When it comes to the real, real work, you see people start falling away. And the only one or two people standing are the people who are really hyper-focussed on the craft, on the process. That's Chad."
- "Chadwick was one of those actors that, he scares you because you know you have to step up when you're in his presence, that he is gonna go 100 percent. He just is. You feel it."
- "Every once in a while, there's someone who comes in, they only come along once in a lifetime. The rest of us scramble for half of our lives, thinking we did not listen to that inner voice, not one single time. And that's all he did."
Denzel Washington
- "Some people have a concentrated dose of life. It's like the old frozen orange juice that was in that little container, and you have to put a gallon of water in it to make it a quart of orange juice. Well, some people are that concentrated juice with no water in it. It's too strong. It's too good. It's too powerful."
Spike Lee
- "When the audiences see him, they're not just looking at Stormin' Norman. This is Jackie Robinson. This is the Godfather of Soul. This is the dark-skinned Thurgood Marshall. And then, on top of that, the Black Panther [6]."
Phylicia Rashad
- "There was never anything that he thought he shouldn't learn. He was so busy creating. He was so busy developing. He was not going to limit his experience of growth and learning because of cultural difference."
Danai Gurira
- "The depth of how he would work, like, with dialect was really something . . . It was quite astounding, like, that sort of immersion and mastery of your craft and constant pursuit."
Taylour Paige
- "It was like he was in motion — infinite. Infinitely curious, infinitely available."
- "A teacher, a preacher, and a prophet, that's a bar. And that is one million percent Chadwick Boseman."
Woodie King Jr.
- "What makes an actor is listening. What's being said between the lines? What's not being said that wants to be said? Chad was able to put that into his work."
Glynn Turman
- "He was very detailed about his work. But I hear he was like that about everything that he did . . . He was a technician."