Colman Domingo Recalls Late Costar Chadwick Boseman 'Worked Like a Tornado' on Final Movie “Ma Rainey's Black Bottom”

The late Chadwick Boseman had “so much energy and passion” while filming his final movie, recalled Colman Domingo

Colman Domingo is remembering his dearly departed costar Chadwick Boseman.

On the Friday, June 28 episode of Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? on Max, the Oscar-nominated Rustin star reflected on acting with the late Boseman in 2020’s Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

“Chad came in with so much energy and passion,” Domingo, 54, recalled for CNN anchor Chris Wallace. “He worked like a tornado.”

Boseman died at age 43 from colon cancer in August 2020, making the Viola Davis-starring August Wilson adaptation his final film. As Boseman noted, “no one” involved on Ma Rainey's Black Bottom knew that the Black Panther star was facing a deadly disease at the time.

Related: Lupita Nyong'o Celebrates Late Chadwick Boseman's Birthday with Throwback Photo: 'A Heroic Friend'

It was “because he was so sick,” according to Domingo, that Boseman worked so hard at portraying Levee Green, the confident trumpet player in a 1920s jazz band. 

“He had so much fun and so much passion for doing the work,” said the Euphoria Emmy winner. “He would say, ‘Hey Colman, I'm ready to dance with you today.’ We’d just start rehearsing and working on our lines together. And then we tried to outshine each other when we're learning our instruments. It was really a great spar fest. So I didn't know he was sick at all, to be honest.”

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Boseman received a posthumous Golden Globe Award and Oscar nomination for his Ma Rainey’s performance. Tearfully accepting his Golden Globe in his memory in 2021, Boseman’s wife Simone Ledward Boseman said, "He would say something beautiful, something inspiring, something that would amplify that little voice that tells you you can, that tells you to keep going, that calls you back to what you were meant to be doing at this moment in history.”

Related: Colman Domingo Honors Late Stars Chadwick Boseman and André Leon Talley with 2024 Met Gala Look

Asked how the late star would have evolved had he lived longer, Domingo told Wallace, 76, “I thought that he was always so much more than just an actor because of the way he talked.”

Boseman was “very spiritual,” he continued. “And the way he talked about caring for human beings or challenging norms and systems and with his work, I feel he's even more of an activist, to be honest, and an educator… He would probably be producing more and making sure that, you know, the work exists.”

Domingo stars in the upcoming A24 film Sing Sing, a drama about the Rehabilitation Through the Arts theater program at New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility featuring formerly incarcerated alumni of the program.

Among his upcoming projects is playing Joe Jackson in the 2025 Michael Jackson biopic Michael. Domingo’s acclaimed play Wild with Happy recently premiered as an audio adaptation on Audible.

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