Chadwick Boseman's Essential Performances

NPR

April 6, 202112:01 AM ET

Linda Holmes

Twitter

Aisha Harris

Ronald Young Jr.

Chadwick Boseman's Essential Performances

Listen · 19:27 19:27

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/983449549/984449492" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Enlarge this image

Chadwick Boseman attends the 90th Annual Academy Awards in 2018. VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption

VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

Chadwick Boseman attends the 90th Annual Academy Awards in 2018.

VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

Chadwick Boseman is nominated for an Oscar this year for his performance in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. It's his final onscreen role — he died of colon cancer in August. Before that, Boseman played historical figures including Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson and James Brown. And of course, he joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Black Panther. And today we're talking about some of those essential performances.

Show Notes:

Aisha's pick: Get On Up (2014)
Linda's pick: Black Panther (2018)
Ronald's pick: 21 Bridges (2019)

Read Soraya Nadia McDonald's piece: Chadwick Boseman knew how to breathe and live 'Howard forever'
Read Aisha's piece from Slate: Why Aren't We Talking About Chadwick Boseman?

The audio was produced by Candice Lim and edited by Jessica Reedy.