Chadwick Boseman Axed Potential Movie With Tessa Thompson Over Slave Roles

Days after the world received the news of Chadwick Boseman’s passing, his longtime agent, Michael Greene, has sat down to share memories of the late actor. For the last four years, Boseman privately battled stage IV colon cancer while accepting roles in over a half-dozen acclaimed films. Reports state that he would have carried on to finish a sequel to Black Panther but his illness became too great.

Greene told The Hollywood Reporter that Chadwick Boseman was particular about the roles he wanted to tackle, and often turned down opportunities for parts that didn’t meet the actor’s standards. “We never did really dark movies or movies that were just people shooting everybody and perpetuating darkness,” said Greene. He gave an example of a role for a film that was offered to both Boseman and Creed actress Tessa Thompson.

“‘Oh, here’s your next script, and your mother’s a crackhead and your father left.’ And he goes, ‘I’m not playing those images,’ and he went into the writer’s room, and they fired him. I remember him and Tessa were offered a movie, it was about two slaves, and he was like, ‘I do not want to perpetuate slavery.’ It was like, ‘We’re not going to keep perpetuating the stereotypes.'” Even with parts passing him by, Boseman was able to impact the culture during his brief career. He is truly missed.

[via]