When Chadwick Boseman got the call about Marshall, he was worried. Where’s the hard part, he wondered? The screaming muscles, bone-deep exhaustion and verbal abuse he endured to play Jackie Robinson (42), Vontae Mack (Draft Day) and James Brown (Get on Up) didn’t seem required to play future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall. He found it soon enough – you try leading a courtroom drama when your character is silenced at the opening gavel. For Boseman, the hard part is always the best part. “If I can show up and breeze through it, it’s not going to make me better.” Ideally, he wants to make us all better – by expanding our view of the black experience through more diverse storytelling. With the upcoming Marvel-ization of his career (Black Panther) the hard part now might be getting to all of those rich, untold tales. We’ll wait. Not patiently, but we’ll wait.
When Chadwick Boseman got the call about Marshall, he was worried. Where’s the hard part, he wondered? The screaming muscles, bone-deep exhaustion and verbal abuse he endured to play Jackie Robinson (42), Vontae Mack (Draft Day) and James Brown (Get on Up) didn’t seem required to play future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall. He found it soon enough – you try leading a courtroom drama when your character is silenced at the opening gavel. For Boseman, the hard part is always the best part. “If I can show up and breeze through it, it’s not going to make me better.” Ideally, he wants to make us all better – by expanding our view of the black experience through more diverse storytelling. With the upcoming Marvel-ization of his career (Black Panther) the hard part now might be getting to all of those rich, untold tales. We’ll wait. Not patiently, but we’ll wait.