The Daily Show: Ears Edition - ICYMI - Chadwick Boseman on Throwing Passion Behind a Revolutionary Idea in "Black Panther"

Episode Date: July 4, 2019

Actor Chadwick Boseman reflects on the many groundbreaking elements of "Black Panther" and explains why the film features a multitude of authentic African accents. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. Do Nice Guys Really Finish Last? I'm Tim Harford, host of the Cautionary Tales podcast, and I'm exploring that very question. Join me for my new miniseries on the Art of Fairness. From New York to Tahiti will examine villains undone by their villainy. Monstrous, self-devaring egos, and accounts of the extraordinary power of decency.

Listen on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Have you ever been watching the news and thought to yourself, wow, the Supreme Court sure does suck. We made a podcast about that. We sure did. There is a super majority of conservative maniacs on the Supreme Court right now really doing some damage. I'm Michael. I'm Riannan. And I'm Peter. Our podcast 5-4 is about all of this. Every week we dissect and analyze a different ruling that has made our country a little worse, a little

more cruel. And you would not believe how many of them there are. Check out 5-to four. That's the number five, dash, the number four, wherever you listen to podcast. Please welcome Chad Rick Bozeman. I didn't expect you to do that. What do you mean you didn't expect you to do that everywhere you go now for the rest of your life? You are not lying. You are not lying. You are the king of Wakanda, my friend. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. I've been a fan of yours for such a long time

and I've watched you go from film to film and you've played some of the most iconic people on screen, but there is something truly different and magical about this character. Could you feel it when you were making Black Panther? I think the whole cast we knew how special this project could be. We knew what the comic book was. We knew, the, the, the, the, the, th, th, the, th, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, the, you th, you th, you the, you thi, thi, you th, you, you, th, th, th, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, the, the, the, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, the, th, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, thi, thin, the, the, the, the, than, than, than, than, than, than, than, than, than, than, thi, we knew how special this project could be. We knew what the comic book was, we knew with the, you know, with the whole idea of this technologically advanced nation in Africa that, you know, essentially they're the oldest people on the planet. Right. That's that idea that it was a revolutionary one that we knew we could throw a lot of our passion into and we didn't know how people would receive it. We didn't know you know that it would be this sort of impact that

we knew that it would be important to see a black superhero. We knew that would be interesting. We knew that you know once people saw what these women were that that would impact some people but you don't know if that's going to be a niche Group of people that love it and you also don't know if it's going to you know if the studio is going to put everything they can into it, right? I have to give Marvel credit and Disney credit for, you know, throwing the book at it. Essentially, it's what they did. And that's really what they did. I mean, like the marketing worldwide, the way the story was presented, everyone on the cost. Because what made the story special was, I don't know if it was just me. It feels like Black Panther's powers come not just from his suit, but from his people.

From his tradition. From his tribe, from the women around him. It was really special to see a situation where it didn't feel like anyone was a sidekick. It felt like everyone was part of a team. Was that something that you were focusing on in the way you treated your stars in every scene? Absolutely. I felt like in order for him to be a good king, you know, one of the good signs of someone who was wise is that they disseminate responsibility. Right.

And so I felt that his father would have taught him, you know, use everybody's skills. Don't try to do everything. Right. You can't be everywhere at one time. So it was important for to be as strong as she is. It was important for the to to to to to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a the to be a to be a to be a the to be a the to be a to be a the to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a the the the to be a to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the theatheaeatheaeathea., theathea., theatheaug., theatheau., thoomeatheaug., thiauiauiceauiauia., thoomoomorrow., thia. so it was important for denied to be as strong as she is. It was important for Lu Peter to be as strong as she is. And I felt like, you know, what we had as far as, you know, there's no real, I don't think

there's a villain in this movie. I think you have two sides of the same coin, the killmonger story. That's interesting. We treated treated treated treated treated treated treated treated treated treated treated treated treated treated treated treated treated threated threated threated threated threated threated threated threated threated threated the. I the, the, the, the. thi. I thi. I'm, thi. I'm, thi. I, thi. I, thi. I, thi. I, thi. I, thi. I, thi. I, thi. I, th. I, th. I, th. I. I, th. I. I, th. I, th. I, th. I, th. I, th. It, th. It, thi. It, thi. You. It, thi. You, thi. It, thi. You, thi. You toea. You tea.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a. It's, thea. It's, the. the Tachala story. You know, we treated it that way. Michael and I kept ourselves separate and came together at certain points so that we could create this sort of tension on scene, but in the scenes, but it was, it was a collaboration, I think, for everybody. That's an interesting idea that there was no, there was no villain.

It was two sides of a story. I mean, more than ever in America right now, people feel like, oh, there's a villain, there's no villain. It feels like every story needs to have that. But that's what made Black Panther so complicated. I won't give any spoilers away. But it felt like a story where you t people were trying to do what they were trying to do. Well it doesn't let anybody off the hook. Right. You know what I'm saying? Like and I think that's that's the key thing is that I think

when you you, everybody is the hero in their own story, you know, like you should be the hero on your own story. You should be, you know, the dramatic action of whatever you're trying to do, so when you get the crisis, you know how to deal with it. You should be able to do that. And there are people that come in and help you with your story, but you have to be the person who deals with the conflicts that are in place. Nobody else, there's no deuce ex machina who's going to come in and save it for you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you the to you the to to the to the to the the to the to the the the the the to the the to be their their their to to to their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their th. th. th. th. th. the to the to to thea. You thea. You thea' thea' thea' thea' thea' thra' thea' thamama' thea' thi thi that are in place. Nobody else can, there's no deuce ex machina is gonna come in and save it for you. Even if you pray to God, God expects you to do some things.

So I think you have to be that hero. I know that I felt that and I connected with so many of the characters in different ways, not just because of who they were doing, but also because of home. I was really impressed by the fact that everyone in the movie had an African accent. And what was cool was it was African accents from different places, you know, like Mbaku had a Nigerian inspired accent, you know, and Nikita had an accent that had flare, like a bit of a bit of Kenya in there, and Tachala came out and there was a moment in the movie while I was watching you and I was like like, why, their, thi, thi, thi, thi, their, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, like, thi, thi, thi, like, like, thi, like, like, like, like, like, thi, was thi, was thi, was thi, was th, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was thi, was, was, was, was their, was, was their, was their, was their, was, was their, was, was, was, was, was their, was they.. they. was, was they. was thi, was thi, was thi, was thi, was thi, was thi, thr-a, thr-a, thr-a, threa, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thr-a, was thi, was their when I was watching you and I was like why does the sound like a little bit of a young Nelson Mandela there was like a what was there like a cross-out the inspiration behind the accent?

Absolutely absolutely my my you know that was that was the the sound of my dialect coach oh wow so I wanted that sound specifically because I felt like the clicks are an indication like it's believed that that that the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the that that that that that the that the that that that that that that was that was that was that was that was that was that was that was the the the the the the the the the theycelleaeterterterterterterclerler is was was was was was was was was was was was was was was was was was was was was was was was the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the theycliaugeauglia claucliaughte claucalauge cusse claught.calauge cusses.cala.cala.cala.cala. I was that's.c because I felt like the clicks are an indication, like it's believed that the languages that have the clicks, they're among the oldest. So I felt like that was a great sound for this particular character. And you know, the point that you just brought up about each body, each person having a different sound, we felt like we were taking the continent and sort of closing it in, like compressing it and saying, everything that we love about the continent came from here.

So you can pull from every place because there's a dispersion from this, from Wakanda. So yes, she could have a Kenyan hint in her accent. It also allows each actor to bring things that are close to them to the story. So as opposed to some people might be like, well, you can't just have this generalized Africa where people are picking from anything they want. But if it becomes from an organic truth and an organic DNA,

which is what we did, then everybody's on the same page, then it becomes something that is real. So was it was a part of you worried, though, that everyone having African accents would be something that like the studio or even movie goers wouldn't gravitate towards? I, I wasn't worried. So somebody was worried. wasn't worried. So somebody was worried. Somebody was worried. I wasn't, yeah. Yeah, I wasn't worried because I had seen, you know, I'd seen John Connie doing Shakespeare,

you know what I'm saying? I had seen, he plays my father in the film. I had seen, you know, you know what I'm saying? I had seen, who plays my father in the film, I had seen, you know, African Zulu Macbeth. You know, I'd seen that before. So I knew, I already knew it worked. I had seen that from my college years, that this could work. You know, other people hadn't seen that. So I knew that that an African accent could carry all of that passion in the English language, you know, just as well as a British one could, if not better. And so, you know, for me, there was a, when I heard things like, people can't listen to that, you know, for an entire film, if, you know, they were just talking about me doing

it. I was like, no, we're going to go to Wakanda one day. And if, in my mind, I was like, if I have a British accent right now, what's going to happen? With the rest of the nation, it's speaking with a British accent. I'm just picturing that scene. I'm just picturing that cut out of the movie right now. And everyone's like, my king,'s like my king you have return he's like well hello there yeah yeah yeah yeah hello good to be back when we were debating it I had that nightmare I had that nightmare I was like no boy like the movie connected with so many

people on so many levels and one thing I really enjoyed was I got to watch the film in New York City I got to watch the film in New York City I got to watch the film with many different people from different walks of life I watched how it touched many African-Americans. What I also loved though was how that authenticity translated back to Africa, back to South Africa. I saw people back to the themo. I saw people back home who embraced the movie just as much as people did here, which is not an easy thing to do because Africans get portrayed in a certain way in film. And a lot of the time I won't like, we watch movies and we're like, who are they trying to imitate right now?

Right. What part of Africa is this? But people loved it back home. People loved it in the motherland. Was that something that was important for you? Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did. Did, did, did, did, did. Did. Did. Did, did, did. Did. Did. Did, did, did, did. Did. Did. Did, did, did, did. Did. Did. Did. Did, did, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, tho. tho. the the it to words what that feels like because because you know on both sides as after as an african-american and you know seeing people from the continent i see i've seen a divide from my entire life you know i've you know

grew up and i remember here the term african booty scratches is an insult right right and then i and then i i i went through my face of trying to find Africa and not knowing, well, which place am I from? And I've seen Africans who viewed us in a particular way where you're not connected. You don't know where you're from. And at the same time, love parts of our culture. So there's like this weird, that's been this weird dynamic. you know, I don't the the th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th I don't th th tho I don't tho I don't tho I don't tho I don't know, I don't know, I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know know know know know know know the the the the the the the same time, love parts of our culture. So there's like this weird,

there's been this weird dynamic. You know, I don't know the oral tradition because I didn't grow up with it, you know, from, you know, if I knew exactly where I came from growing up, I would have had an oral tradition from that place. Right. I never had that. So this movie in a certain way creates a story that we all share.

And it's the first time that I feel like that's ever happened. I feel like where it's like, okay, that's our story. That's our story too. I think part of that is because you have these two characters who have this collision and they have to go through each other and find out about each other. So even in fighting, there is a sense of kinship among them. And I think it's portrayed on screen where people accept it.

It's portrayed, it's welcomed, it's welcomed, it's electric, and it's going to make a billion dollars plus. Congratulations. Congratulations. It's so amazing. electric and it's going to make billion dollars plus. So... Congratulations. It's so amazing having you on the show. Thank you for everything that's done. I appreciate you. Black Panther is in theaters now.

Chadwick Bozeman everyone. Yeah. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central and the Comedy Central app. Watch full episodes and videos at the Daily Show. to. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to the Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content and more. This has been a Comedy Central podcast. Do Nice Guys Really Really Finish Last. This has been a Comedy Central podcast. Do nice guys really finish last?

I'm Tim Harford, host of the Cautionary Tales podcast, and I'm exploring that very question. Join me for my new miniseries on the Art of Fairness. From New York to Tahiti will examine villains undone by their villainy. Monstrous, self-devaring egos and accounts of the extraordinary power of decency. Listen on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. The candidates for November are set.

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