It’s increasingly likely that in a couple of weeks, Chadwick Boseman will win a posthumous Oscar for his role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. The movie is a Netflix Original, and now, the streamer is working on putting together a star-studded tribute to the late actor to put air on the service. Tuesday, Netflix announced Chadwick Boseman: Portrait of an Artist, a documentary featuring interviews with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
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The tribute will only be available on Netflix for a limited time, debuting on April 17th beginning at 12:00 a.m. Pacific time. It will then remain on the service for 30 days before being removed.
Those interviewed for the project include Ma Rainey’s costars Viola Davis, Glynn Turman, and Taylour Paige, alongside director George C. Wolfe. Other creatives taking part in the project include Danai Gurira, Brian Helgeland, Reginald Hudlin, Spike Lee, Phylicia Rashad, and Denzel Washington amongst others.
In addition to serving as the frontrunner for an Oscar, Boseman has already won a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Gotham Award, a Critic’s Choice Award, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.
Netflix’s synopsis for the project can found below.
“‘Chadwick Boseman: Portrait of an Artist’ is an intimate look at the Oscar-nominated actor’s incomparable artistry, and the acting process which informed his transformative performances. Viola Davis, Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, George C. Wolfe, Branford Marsalis, Phylicia Rashad and more take us behind the scenes to explore Boseman’s extraordinary commitment to his craft.”
Boseman passed away last August after a years-long battle with colon cancer. He was 43. The actor’s wife — Simone Ledward Boseman — has been accepting his awards this awards season, advocating for early cancer screens in her speeches.
“Black people in this country are 20 percent more likely to be diagnosed with colon cancer and 40 percent more likely to die from it. The age for routine screening has recently been lowered to 45 so if you are 45 years of age or older, please get screened. Don’t put it off any longer, please get screened,” she said after her late husband won an award at the NAACP Awards.
“This disease is beatable if you catch it in its early stages so you don’t have any time to waste even if you have no family history and even if you think nothing is wrong. And if you are younger than 45, please be proactive about your health. Know the signs, know the science, listen to your body. If you need more information and for a full list of colon cancer symptoms you can visit standuptocancer.org/coloncancersymptoms,” she continued. “Please, you are so needed and you are so loved. Please take your health into your own hands. Thank you.”
