A 2017 interview in which actor Chadwick Boseman hinted at his illness is going viral. The Black Panther actor died after a four-year battle with colon cancer on Friday (US time). As his Hollywood career boomed, though, Boseman was privately undergoing “countless surgeries and chemotherapy” to battle colon cancer, his family said in a statement announcing his death at age 43 on Friday. He’d been diagnosed at stage 3 in 2016 but never spoke publicly about it.
HuffPost journalist Matt Jacobs shared the excerpt shortly after the actor’s death was announced. He wrote, “I interviewed Chadwick Boseman in 2017, and to think he was going through cancer while satisfying the physical demands of a Marvel movie…”
In the short excerpt, the reporter asks Chadwick if he bulked up after filming the drama film Marshall between two Marvel movies. He replied, looking exhausted, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” The reporter said, “You’ve been through the ringer,” to which the actor responded, with a laugh, “Oh, you don’t even know. You have no idea. One day I’ll live to tell the story.”
The actor’s fans were taken by his spirit. “He laughed. HE LAUGHED. Knowing he was dying, he still laughed at. This man loved bringing joy to others and it is absolutely brutal he can’t anymore,” one person wrote in response to the tweet. “That is not just strength that is heart and determination,” wrote another fan.His death has been condoled by everyone from his Marvel movie co-stars to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Actor Don Cheadle wrote on his social media, “I will miss you, birthday brother. You were always light and love to me.” Chris Pratt expressed his prayers for Boseman’s family and loved ones. Mark Ruffalo said in a statement, “It was the highest honor getting to work with you and getting to know you. What a generous and sincere human being. You believed in the sacred nature of the work and gave your all.” Zoe Saldana described him as a “king”. Brie Larson called Boseman “someone who radiated power and peace” and “stood for so much more than himself”. Chris Evans posted a message sharing that he was “absolutely devastated”, calling Boseman a “true original”. Chris Hemsworth called his death “absolutely heartbreaking”, adding, that Boseman was “One of the kindest most genuine people (he had) met.”
