Marvel's Black Panther came out during a crucial moment in Daniel Kaluuya's career — and now, he's sharing the impact his late co-star Chadwick Boseman had on him during that time.
The Oscar-winner spoke about Boseman during a recent event at the BFI London Film Festival, as reported by THR. Kaluuya called meeting him "a pivotal moment in my life," and remembered one dinner in particular where Boseman saw something in him.
"He could see my life was changing, and I didn’t know," Kaluuya recalled. "He leaned in — and I was about to go on a press run, and I didn’t have a publicist [Laughs]. He leaned in and saw I needed help and guidance, and I didn’t have to ask. And I didn’t know how to ask.”
Kaluuya played W'Kabi in Marvel's 2018 hit opposite Boseman's T'Challa, and he was just about to see his career skyrocket. Black Panther was filming the same year Jordan Peele's horror smash Get Out released, which would thrust Kaluuya onto the international stage and earn him an Academy Award.
“He big bro-ed me, he helped me out,” Kaluuya said of Boseman. “Then Get Out came out, and he did a speech on my birthday, it was so poignant. He was an incredible leader on set, and I really felt for him because doing those Marvel things, that’s work. That’s hard. Especially doing the action sequences in those suits in hot weather, it’s hard on the body… Knowing that he did that while he was going through what he was going through, I don’t really have the words for it."
Boseman died in 2020 at the age of 43 after a private battle with colon cancer. He was diagnosed in 2016, before Black Panther started filming, and Kaluuya remembered how "he just gave everything, he led in a very noble way. He always brought people together."
"He always had time for everyone," Kaluuya added. "Him and Lupita [Nyong’o], they were always back and forth, and they just knew that my life was changing.”
Boseman's passing was a massive shock to the industry, and much of the 2022 sequel to Black Panther, Wakanda Forever, pays tribute to him and his T'Challa. The actor has been remembered in this years since his death with honors like a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Kaluuya, meanwhile, has appeared in films like Widows, Queen & Slim, Judas and the Black Messiah, Nope, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse over the past several years.
Thumbnail credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for NAACP
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
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