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MANILA, Philippines. — Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o looked back on how filming the Black Panther sequel, Wakanda Forever, brought comfort and healing to the grieving cast after the loss of Chadwick Boseman.
During a virtual roundtable interview with Asia-Pacific press, including The STAR, the actress bared how it felt “very different” returning to the set without Boseman, who essayed the title role in what would become a milestone movie for Marvel.
Following a private, four-year battle with colon cancer, the actor who brought to life on the big screen the first Black superhero died in August 2020 at the age of 43, sending shockwaves to fans around the world.
It was even more pronounced for Lupita and the rest of the original cast, who were all feeling the loss on the set of Wakanda Forever. She admitted, “Coming back to this film, I had a whole lot of mixed emotions. I didn’t know how I was going to feel to be back in Wakanda.”
Nevertheless, she said that as they were going through exactly the same thing, it wasn’t hard to realize that they could “lean on each other, experience the grief together and just recommit to telling the story in his honor as well, as a way to comfort ourselves, heal ourselves and just commit to putting one foot in front of another.”
“So, it was really good actually to come back and to feel that bond that the old cast had and to really depend on it to move forward,” she added.
Lupita particularly gave special mention to new co-stars in the film for understanding “the loss that we were experiencing” and for being “very gracious.” According to the actress, they helped the original cast members find a reason to keep going.
“You know, a way to move forward and to just embrace them and bring them along with us on this incredible journey. And they ended up really affecting the journey and inspiring the future of Wakanda,” she added.
Meanwhile, Black Panther 2 included scenes where the people of Wakanda paid tribute to their King T’Challa who passed on. The character had not been recast in the sequel and to date, no actor had been brought in to replace Boseman.
So, when asked what it was like carrying out those scenes that hit so close to home, Lupita admitted, “It was heavy and easier than I’d like to admit because the grief was so present. You know, those were the scenes that needed very little preparation because it was speaking the truth of a feeling that we were all feeling.
“So, in a sense, it was a place to put the grief. It was actually very therapeutic to be able to put my real emotions into this fictitious story. And it felt useful, you know, to be able to use my emotions in that way and channel my emotions in that way.
“I was very happy to have those points where I could just allow for the grief to come out and that it was doing some good in telling a story because, ultimately, we all go to the cinema to step into someone else’s shoes but also to see ourselves more clearly. So, to be able to provide that for people who might be feeling grief for any number of reasons, it feels useful.”
On a more personal level, Lupita also got to honour the memory of her late co-star and love interest in the first Black Panther movie, thanks to a photo from director Ryan Coogler. – philstar.com
Online Reporter