Phylicia Rashad Remembers Former Acting Student Chadwick Boseman’s ‘Gentle Way’
Phylicia Rashad was Chadwick Boseman’s acting teacher at Howard University in the late 1990s
Phylicia Rashad is looking back on her special relationship with Chadwick Boseman.
In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, the Cosby Show alum, 72, reflected on mentoring Boseman, who died on Aug. 28 at age 43 after a four-year battle with colon cancer, when she was his acting teacher at Howard University in the late 1990s.
“I remember his smile and his gentle way,” Rashad said of the late actor. “I remember his unending curiosity and his love of study, studying many things all of the time.”
“When I look back on his body of film work, and I have been able to see quite a bit of it in these last few weeks, it never ceases to amaze me how very different he is in each and every role,” she added in the interview. “And the differences are subtle. They are not sweet rolled, they are not manipulated, they are not contrived. He presents a real person and persona in every character he plays.”
Rashad said she was “amazed” Boseman did not receive an Oscar for his role as James Brown in 2014’s Get on Up.
“When you talk about someone going deep inside themselves to step out of themselves, and to present a human being that we know superficially and to go deeper into the psychology of that person, that was phenomenal work,” she said.
Rashad did more for Boseman beyond just teaching him: she enlisted the help of Denzel Washington to quietly pay for Boseman and several of his classmates to attend an acting program at England’s Oxford University.
But even as Boseman went on to star in many blockbuster films, including Black Panther, Rashad said the late actor always remained humble.
“When he came to New York, after graduating from Howard University, one day he called me all excited, ‘Oh Ms. Rashad, you will never guess what I am doing,’ ” the actress recalled to ET, believing he had landed a Broadway gig. “You know what he was doing? He was working with young people at the library and he was excited about it. That’s who Chadwick was.”
The late actor was laid to rest near his hometown six days after he died in Los Angeles. He was buried on Sept. 3 at Welfare Baptist Church Cemetery in Belton, which is about 11 miles from Anderson.
Boseman’s cause of death is listed as multiple organ failure, with the underlying cause listed as colon cancer, according to his death certificate.
Washington also spoke out about Boseman after his death, saying during a virtual Toronto International Film Festival panel, “Who knew he didn’t have much life left? But he didn’t get cheated. We did. I pray for his poor wife and his family, they got cheated. But he lived a full life.”
