Chadwick Boseman “Keeps ‘Em Coming”
On Sunday night, actor Chadwick Boseman won the Golden Globe for Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for his role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. But it was a sad moment for many, since the actor best known for his role in Black Panther died in August 2020 after suffering from colon cancer for four years.
Since Boseman was unable to accept the award, many people like myself expected there would be no acceptance speech and that the MC would probably move on to the next award. But no. Someone stepped up to accept Boseman’s award.
The broadcast immediately turned to a video stream of Boseman’s wife, Taylor Simone Ledward, dressed in a golden gown, and visibly emotional at the occasion of accepting her late husband’s award. What followed was a beautiful tribute in honor of her beloved.
“He would thank God; he would thank his parents,” she began, in an acceptance speech that showed great care in recounting all that Boseman would have wanted. She went on to thank those he worked with in the film production by name, and other colleagues.
After listing those to whom he would have extended gratitude, Ledward continued, “He would say something beautiful. Something inspiring, something that would amplify that little voice inside of all of us that tells you you can. That tells you to keep going. That calls you back to what you are meant to be doing at this moment in history.”
Tears were visible in the widow’s eyes as she ended her remarks appearing to address Boseman himself. “And honey,” she said, “keep ‘em coming.” The line, which could be read to suggest the actor is continuing to move people through his work, was enough to make you think she was sensing his prayers and support from above as well.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, based on the play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson, is set in the 1920s and touches on the challenges of black musicians breaking into the jazz scene. As NPR describes it, Ma Rainey tells “a fictional account of a day in the life of the early 20th century blues singer Rainey, who was known for her bawdy lyricism and bold personality, this is a reclamation of Black music and culture as told through an array of distinct characters, crackling dialogue and sharp filmmaking.”
Denzel Washington directs the Netflix film, and in addition to Boseman, the film features Viola Davis, Glynn Turman, and Colman Domingo. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, critic Justin Chang said, “Boseman, evincing the same integrity he clung to his entire career, refuses to soft-pedal the destination. He imparts to this seething, shattered man the gift of a broken soul, driven by anger and trauma, and makes him all the more human for it. His final moments of screen time are among his darkest, and also his finest.”
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