Letitia Wright is remembering her “big brother” and co-star Chadwick Boseman.
In an emotional interview with British Vogue, the actress, 27, paid tribute to the late actor. Boseman died in August after a long and private battle with colon cancer. He was 43.
While speaking about Boseman, Wright recalled the first time she met her soon-to-be co-star, during her audition for “Black Panther”.
“From the moment we met, I loved Chadwick Boseman. I landed in Los Angeles in September 2016, called to audition for a Marvel Studios film that was to be directed by Ryan Coogler. It was clear this was a big deal. I was only 22 and incredibly nervous, but Chad — already cast as the lead — walked in with a smoothie, laid-back and cool. I heard God speak to my heart; that he would be my brother, and that I was to love him as such. As we read our lines, playing siblings for the first time, my hand reflexively went to his chest, over his heart surprising me. Why was I touching the chest of a man I’d just met? But then he wrapped his huge, beautiful hands around mine and held them there,” she explained.
“It became more than an audition scene. I felt I had found the big brother I never had. The next time we met, on set in Atlanta, his energy was lower. He said he was just tired, flying coast to coast to test with different actors, and I worried our connection wasn’t clicking anymore. But, unbeknown to me, he had already told his team and Marvel that he felt like he had found his sister in me.”
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Later, Wright recalled losing Boseman.
“I wish I had got to say goodbye,” she said. “I wish that I could tell him how much he inspired me. How cherished he is by the world. How grateful I am to him for seeing me, a young Black woman from Guyana – a small fish in a big pond. How his yes for me to be a part of his world changed my life forever. For his selfless act of sharing his spirit and gift with us.”
Wright’s comments come just after Boseman received his first-ever Oscar nomination. He was nominated posthumously for his role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”.
