Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens in theaters Nov. 11.
Ryan Coogler is remembering his final conversation with Chadwick Boseman.
In an episode of Wakanda Forever: The Official Black Panther podcast that aired on Thursday, The Black Panther director recalled his “last conversation” with the beloved actor, who died of colon cancer in August 2020 at the age of 43.
At the time, Coogler, 36, noted he was calling Boseman “to ask if he wanted to read [the script] before I got notes from the studio.”
“That was the last time we spoke. He passed maybe a couple of weeks after I finished,” he continued.
Getting emotional over the memory, he said, “I could tell he was laying down when we were talking. He kicked [Taylor] Simone out because he told her he didn’t want her to hear anything that could get him in trouble with his NDA.”
“She didn’t want to leave. I could tell something was up,” he added.
Coogler said the late actor refused to read the script of the movie sequel claiming he did not want to get in the way of the studio’s notes.
“I found out later he was too tired to read anything,” Coogler recalled.
The final chat also included a conversation about Boseman’s plans for his wedding, as “he was talking about how many people were coming,” according to Coogler. Boseman also asked Coogler about his kid after he wasn’t able to attend the director and his wife Zinzi Evans’ baby shower.
In the following weeks, Coogler received a call from his manager Charles King to inform him about the death of Boseman.
“I didn’t want to believe it, so I called Denzel [Washington] and I spoke to him, and we thought it might be a rumor, so I texted Chad. I was in denial,” he explained of the moment.
“Everything about Chad was unique,” he continued. “How he lived and how he died was unique.”
Coogler previously directed Fruitvale Station (2013), Creed (2015) and the first Black Panther (2018). He returns to direct the sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
During an interview with Entertainment Weekly last month, he shared he didn’t know if he could continue making movies after Boseman’s death.
“I was at a point when I was like, ‘I’m walking away from this business.’ I didn’t know if I could make another movie period, [let alone] another Black Panther movie, because it hurt a lot,” he told the outlet. “I was like, ‘Man, how could I open myself up to feeling like this again?’ ”
In the days after Boseman’s death, Coogler was “poring over a lot of our conversations that we had, towards what I realized was the end of his life. I decided that it made more sense to keep going.”
He added, “There’s that idea of grief and intense emotion feeling like it comes in waves. Sometimes a wave can take you away where you lose control of it. You think you’re in control, but the water can always remind you that you’re not.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hits theaters Nov. 11.
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