After days of silence, Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o released an emotional public statement expressing her thoughts on the passing of Chadwick Boseman.
Boseman, who led Nyong’o and the rest of an all-star cast in 2018’s worldwide Marvel hit Black Panther, died Aug. 28 after a private battle with colon cancer. He was 43.
Nyong’o posted a picture of the smiling actor and herself with the caption, “For the beloved #ChadwickBoseman.” She added another hashtag, #TakeYourTimeButDontWasteYourTime.
Her post continued in slide form, where she wrote an eloquent statement.
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“I write these words from a place of hopelessness, to honor a man who had great hope,” Nyong’o began. “I am struggling to think and speak about my friend, Chadwick Boseman, in the past tense. It doesn’t make sense.”
“The news of his passing is a punch to my gut every morning. I am aware that we are all mortal, but you come across some people in life that possess immortal energy, that seems like they have existed before, that is exactly where they are supposed to always be – here! … that seems ageless… Chadwick was one of those people.”
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Nyong’o continued: “Chadwick was a man who made the most of his time and somehow also managed to take his time. I didn’t know him for long, but he had a profound effect on me in the time that I did.”
She then wrote about their time together filming Black Panther.
“When we came together to make Black Panther, I remember being struck by his quiet, powerful presence,” Nyong’o stated. “He had no airs about him, but there was a higher frequency that he seems to operate from. You got the sense that he was fully present and also somehow fully aware of things in the distant future.”
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“When I was around Chadwick, I wanted to be better, less petty, more purposeful … He was fueled by love, not fear. He moved quietly, deliberately and without imposing himself or his ideals on others,” she wrote. “And yet he also made damn sure that his life meant something. He was unwavering about that. He cared so deeply about humanity, about Black people, about his people.”
Nyong’o wrote that “Chadwick has made the infinite his home. We are all charged by his work as a result.”
She noted that in his honor, she promises not to waste her time, adding, “I hope you will do the same.”
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