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 Chadwick Boseman's final
performance, in the film "Ma Rainey's Black
Bottom," coming to Netflix on Friday, would
always have been bittersweet, but it's also
expected to bring the late actor the kind of
awards attention he never won in his short life.
"It's a legendary screen performance," said
director George C. Wolfe. "He approached the
role with such ferocity and gave his guts to the
role, and that's what you see up on the screen."
Boseman, best known as the hero of "Black
Panther," died in August at age 43, having kept
secret a four-year battle with colon cancer.
In "Ma Rainey," the screen adaptation of August
Wilson's stage play of the same name, Boseman
plays ambitious trumpet player Levee, hungry for
change, who clashes with blues singer Ma, played
by Viola Davis, one a hot 1920s day in a Chicago
recording studio.
In one of the play's key moments, Levee rails
against God for turning his back on Black people
in a speech that the other actors said gave them
chills.
"It's like everything came to a stop," said
Michael Potts, who played one of the band
members in the film.
"Something very spiritual happened in that
moment. It was something you could not look away
from ... It was an extraordinary moment. It was
a terrifying moment as well," Potts said.
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 The Washington Post review said
the speech "can't help but carry a tragic double
meaning" given Boseman's death.
Boseman, who was never Oscar-nominated while
alive, is widely expected to be a front-runner
for a best actor Academy Award in April.
The Hollywood Reporter said his work in the film
is "a testament to a blazing talent lost too
soon."
"Ma Rainey" actor Colman Domingo, playing
another band member, said Boseman gave the
speech his all.
"Chad brought everything. I think he brought
things probably that were closer to himself than
he would even want to imagine.
"August Wilson gave him the text and I think the
text matched possibly those questions in his
heart," Domingo said.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Nick
Zieminski)
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