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In an emotional moment from tonight’s Golden Globes ceremony, the late Chadwick Boseman won a posthumous Best Actor award for his role as young, talented trumpeter Levee in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Boseman, who died in August after a four-year-long battle with colon cancer, boldly brought to life the role first created by playwright August Wilson in his 1982 play.
Boseman’s wife, Taylor Simone Ledward, tearfully accepted the award on his behalf. “He would thank God, he would thank his parents, he would thank his ancestors for their guidance and their sacrifices,” she said, continuing, “He would say something beautiful, something inspiring, something that would amplify that little voice inside of all of us that tells us you can, that tells you to keep going, that calls you back to what you’re meant to be doing at this moment in history.
“He would thank Mr. George C. Wolf, Mr. Denzel Washington, lots of people at Netflix. He would thank Ms. Viola Davis, Mr. Glen Turman, Mr. Michael Potts, Mr. Colman Domingo, Ms. Taylour Paige, Mr. Dusan Brown. And I don’t have his words, but we have to take all the moments to celebrate those we love. So thank you HFPA for this opportunity to do exactly that. And hun, you keep ’em coming. Thank you.”
Boseman’s win for Best Actor makes history as only the second posthumous win for Best Actor. The first went to Peter Finch, who won for his role in 1976’s Network.
Boseman’s performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which was filmed in the summer of 2019, marked his final film role before his death. While Boseman kept his cancer diagnosis from the public, his wife cared for him on the set of the film. “Certain members of his team knew [about Boseman’s diagnosis]. His wife was there,” Denzel Washington, a producer on Ma Rainey, told CBS Sunday Morning. “They weren’t even married yet. And I used to watch how she took care of him, and I actually said to him, I said, ‘Man, you know, you need to put a ring on that finger,’ cause she kept her eye on him and she watched him. And I’m like, ‘Man, she loves that guy.’ You know, but I didn’t know what we know now.”
When the film first premiered on Netflix in December, critics widely praised Boseman’s last role. “Boseman’s Levee is angry, brandishing a knife, sharing the horrors his family experienced at the hands of white men in lengthy, anguished soliloquies. He bellows in a rage at God, all his trauma and fear rapid-boiling to the surface,” Decider’s John Serba wrote in his review of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. “His bandmates can only furrow their brows with concern and empathy. Levee butters up the studio owner, hoping to one day record his own songs. His talent and his pain are inextricably tangled. Boseman’s performance all but tears the screen in half.”
When Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom premiered on Netflix late last year, the film closed with a touching tribute to Boseman. “Dedicated to Chadwick Boseman, in celebration of his artistry and heart,” the text reads.
