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Black Panther star Lupita Nyong’o has admitted that she hasn’t watched the movie since the death of her co-star Chadwick Boseman.
Boseman died of colon cancer in 2020, aged 43. He made history as the first Black superhero to lead an MCU film as King T’Challa in the record-breaking Marvel movie, Black Panther.
Oscar-winning actor Nyong’o starred as Nakia, Boseman’s love interest in the movie, and part of a group of women who serve as special forces of Wakanda, where the film is set.
Promoting her new film The Wild Robot at a BFI London Film Festival event, the actor reflected on her grief over the loss of her friend and co-star.
“I have to admit I haven’t seen the film since Chadwick died,” she said. “So I’m having a moment.”
As the audience applauded her she continued, “It’s okay. The grief is just the love with no place to put it, right? I don’t want to run away from the tears or the grief. You just live with it.
“That experience will never be separate from the love that was formed... I watch this clip and I’m filled with grief, and I don’t know whether I’ll ever be done shedding my tears from losing my friend. But I’m like, we get to see him alive, and that’s so wonderful.”
Boseman rose to stardom playing prominent Black figures including baseball great Jackie Robinson in 42 (2013), and soul singer James Brown in Get on Up (2014).
The actor chose not to make the news of his cancer diagnosis public. His family and friends revealed that all of his films were shot despite countless surgeries and chemotherapy.
A statement posted on the actor’s Twitter account following his death, called him “a true fighter” and said he had “persevered through it all”.
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The post appeared to show he had quietly married his long-term girlfriend in the final months of his life.
In 2022, the 12 Years a Slave star said that Boseman’s widow had inspired her performance in the movie’s sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
“I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose the love of your life,” the actor said of Simone Ledward Boseman, the late actor’s wife.
“At his memorial service... I just witnessed the strength she possessed and I remember being so shocked because I was broken. Here she was, she was so grounded, she was like an oak.”
Nyong’o explained that she thought about Simone “a lot” as she prepared for her role.
