'A Profound Effect On Me': Lupita Nyong'o Breaks Silence With Tribute To 'Black Panther' Co-Star Chadwick Boseman
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Actress Lupita Nyong'o broke her silence this week with a lengthy, mournful statement about her "Black Panther" co-star, Chadwick Boseman, who died on Aug. 28 of colon cancer.
"I write these words from a place of hopelessness, to honor a man who had great hope. I am struggling to think and speak about my friend, Chadwick Boseman, in the past tense. It doesn't make sense," she started out in her statement.
Nyong'o, who played the love interest of Boseman's King T'Challa in the billion-dollar Marvel film, is perhaps the last of his co-stars to comment on his death. She described the news of his passing as "a punch to my gut every morning."
Boseman, 43, had been battling colon cancer for the past four years, and his death and the cause stunned his fans and much of Hollywood. The actor did not make it public that he had been diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016.
"Chadwick was a man who made the most of his time, and somehow also managed to take his time. I didn't know him for long, but he had a profound effect on me in the time that I did," Nyong'o wrote.
The actress described Boseman as having a quiet, powerful presence, with no airs about him, fully present in the moment, but also aware of things in the distant future. She also made note of his work ethic, even as he battled cancer unbeknownst to any of this costars.
"And he used his body in every way he could. He did his own stunts, drummed at his own parties, danced many a night a way, mastered martial arts…the list goes on," Nyong'o wrote. "So it seems that it was life that gave up on Chadwick long before Chadwick gave up on life."
