Viola Davis told The Times she ‘was a little judgmental’ about Chadwick Boseman on the set of ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ before she knew he was dying of cancer.
Viola Davis, like the rest of the world, had no idea Chadwick Boseman was dying of cancer when they filmed their 2020 movie “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
In a new interview with The Times, the 59-year-old actress recalled that Boseman’s girlfriend and make-up artist rubbed his back and played meditative music when they were on the set of what would be his final film.
“There was a part of me that was a little judgmental — why do you need all that?” Davis said.
“Little did I know that they were doing it because he was dying,” she added.
Boseman died in August 2020 at the age of 43 from colon cancer, which he had kept secret from the industry, including his colleagues on “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
The film, which dramatized one of blues singer Ma Rainey’s recording sessions in 1920s Chicago, came out three months after Boseman’s death.
