Why Ryan Coogler Says Chadwick Boseman “Freaked Out” Disney Execs While Filming ‘Black Panther’

Ryan Coogler is looking back at how seriously the late Chadwick Boseman took his work as an actor.

The Black Panther director, who recently helmed Sinners starring Michael B. Jordan, made a recent appearance on The Breakfast Club, where he was asked, “What did Chadwick Boseman bring out of you that Michael B. Jordan doesn’t?”

“Out of all of my actors, Chad’s death actually hit Mike the hardest,” Coogler responded. “Chad was older than us, he was quite a bit older than us, even though he looked like he was the same age. He was a fully baked man from the South. He was an old school man’s man and compared to that dude when we worked together bro, me and Mike was kids.”

The filmmaker continued of Boseman, who died in 2020 at age 43 following a battle with colon cancer, “Chad changed my life. He was the kind of teacher who you never knew you was getting a lesson when he taught. It was all by example and what he gave me and Michael was patience. He moved at an old-school pace and he took his time. He was always early. He was that type of dude. And Mike will tell you this, I told him man, I said, ‘Hey bro, what would Chad do in this [Sinners] role? If he had this role what would he do?’ Because Chad never broke action.”

Coogler then recalled how the late actor immersed himself into his character throughout filming for Black Panther, even continuing T’Challa’s accent until the film wrapped production.

“He was talking in an African accent,” the director explained. “Disney execs came to see us on ‘Panther.’ It was week two and they pulled up and it was the T’Challa accent and they were freaked out. I was like, ‘Don’t be freaked out. He’s working, man. He don’t turn it off until we wrap.’ And no shame or embarrassment in that, but that’s how he was moving.”

Coogler added that seeing Boseman “that up close” while filming Black Panther and having “to do scenes across from” him helped Jordan — who played villain Erik Killmonger in the 2018 superhero film — “lock in” to play twin brothers in Sinners, which released on April 18.