‘Black Panther’ Director Ryan Coogler Recalls Final Conversation With Chadwick Boseman: He Was ‘Unique’

usmagazine.com:

Remembering a legend. Two years after, Chadwick Boseman’s unexpected death, filmmaker Ryan Coogler is looking back at their final memories together.“My last conversation with him was calling to ask if he wanted to read [the script] before I got notes from the studio,” the Black Panther director, 36, recalled during the debut episode of the “Wakanda Forever: The Official Black Panther” podcast, which dropped on Thursday, November 3. “That was the last time we spoke.

He passed maybe a couple weeks after I finished [writing Black Panther: Wakanda Forever].”Coogler remembered that the South Carolina native seemed “tired” during their phone conversation, noting that he and Denzel Washington had been “trying to get a hold” of Boseman for several days to no avail.“I texted him [and said], ‘Denzel’s looking for you too.’ … So, he called me, and I could tell he was laying down when we were talking,” Coogler somberly told podcast host Ta-Nehisi Coates, who wrote the original Black Panther comics, on Thursday. “Simone [Ledward, his wife] was with him and he kicked Simone out because he told her he didn’t want her to hear nothing that could get him in trouble with his NDA and she didn’t want to leave, so I could tell something was up.”The Oakland, California, native reminisced that Boseman was “joking and laughing” before asking about his upcoming South Carolina wedding plans and the arrival of his son, now 2, with now-wife Zinzi Evans.

After their check-in, the Golden Globe winner ultimately decided not to read Coogler’s script because he was “too tired.”Coogler initially planned to feature Boseman’s Black Panther in the Wakanda Forever sequel and do a “deep-ish dive into this guy,” however the actor’s death affected production.