Chadwick Boseman Wins Best Actor at 2021 SAG Awards

Chadwick Boseman has won Best Actor in a Motion Picture at the 27th Screen Actors Guild Awards Sunday night. Boseman was posthumously awarded the honor for his role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. The award is just the latest for the Black Panther star in the lead up to the Oscars, for which Boseman has been nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Boseman has also won the Critics Choice Movie Award, the Golden Globe award, and the NAACP Image Award for his role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom as well.

Based on the play of the same name by August Wilson, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom tells the story of “Mother of Blues” Gertrude “Ma” Rainey (played by Viola Davis) and centers on a fateful recording session for her album, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. In the film, Boseman plays the ambitious trumpeter Levee. The film presently sits at a 98 percent Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and nearly every one of the 275 reviews praises Boseman’s performance in the film.

Nominated alongside Boseman in the category were Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal), Anthony Hopkins (The Father), Gary Oldman (Mank), and Steven Yeun (Minari). Boseman was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his role in Da 5 Bloods.

Boseman passed away on August 28, 2020, after a private battle with colon cancer. Throughout awards season, his wife Simone Ledward Boseman has accepted awards on his behalf while also using her platform to encourage people to get colon cancer screenings, a disease that disproportionately impacts the Black community, as she did for his recent NAACP win.

“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,

“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.”