GOSSIP & RUMORS: Viola Davis says she judged Chadwick Boseman before he died 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. For his performance as Levee Green, Boseman received a posthumous Oscar nomination.

In Dec. 2020, Davis told Yahoo Entertainment that she “broke down” when she learned of her co-star’s death.

“Lord knows we all would’ve wanted him to live another 50 years. We all want longevity,” she said.

“But I can’t see his life tragically at all. … Because I felt like he was always living in the moment, squeezing out every bit of life,” the EGOT winner continued. “What it makes me think is, it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality.”

Davis went on, “What I hold onto with Chad is that he lived his life his way. I would say his professional life as absolutely paralleled his personal life, that’s my guess, in terms of how he lived with the utmost integrity.”

In a past interview The Guardian, Davis said that she thinks Boseman will “be remembered as a hero.”

“There’s a part of the public that’s gonna associate that with ‘Black Panther’; I do not,” she shared. “I associate that with his authenticity, especially in the midst of a profession that sometimes can suck that out of you.”

During an appearance on an OWN Spotlight special with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, Davis said Boseman didn’t care about the fame that came with his job.

“I just felt that he was not interested in being a movie star as much as he was concerned with being a really great artist,” she said.

George C. Wolfe, who directed “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” previously told Variety that working with Boseman was “empowering.”

“I feel blessed by the performance, blessed by getting to know him and exhilarated by the work, by this astonishing performance,” he stated. “So yes, there’s sadness, but there’s all these other qualities that I find, ultimately, empowering.”