Inside Chadwick Boseman & Taylor Simone Ledward’s Private Love Story
He continued, in a nod to the history Black Panther had made with its mostly Black cast, Oscar nomination for Best Picture (plus three wins) and billion-dollar box office, “This is a beautiful time in Black filmmaking that we are celebrating right now. It’s not just a normal time, we have to recognize that.”
“Simone, you’re with me every day,” Boseman added, reaching out toward her in the audience. “I have to acknowledge you right now, love you.”
She blew him a kiss, mouthing “love you” back at him.
Days later he went to Southeast Asia to film his small but pivotal role in Spike Lee‘s Da 5 Bloods, what would be his penultimate film.
“I didn’t know Chad was sick,” Lee told Variety in the fall of 2020. “He did not look well, but my mind never took that he had cancer. It was a very strenuous shoot. I mean, we all didn’t get to Vietnam until the end of the movie at Ho Chi Minh City. But that other stuff, the jungle stuff, was shot in Thailand. It was 100 degrees every day. It was also at that time the worst air pollution in the world. I understand why Chadwick didn’t tell me because he didn’t want me to take it easy. If I had known, I wouldn’t have made him do the stuff. And I respect him for that.”
Then, in July 2019, it was off to Pittsburgh with Ledward to make Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. In the ensuing year, they got engaged and tied the knot. And then, on Aug. 28, 2020, came word that Boseman was gone.
