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Chadwick Boseman was determined to share his art with the world — and in the process hid his cancer battle from some of his closest collaborators, according to his inner circle. The “Black Panther” star was “very, very private” and had worked to keep his illness out of the spotlight as he delivered some of …
Chadwick Boseman was determined to share his art with the world — and in the process hid his cancer battle from some of his closest collaborators, according to his inner circle.
The “Black Panther” star was “very, very private” and had worked to keep his illness out of the spotlight as he delivered some of his most iconic performances, his agent, Michael Greene, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Greene was reportedly among a remarkably tight circle of family and friends who knew about his illness, along with his producing partner, Logan Coles, and his trainer, Addison Henderson.
On hiding his late-stage cancer diagnosis from the public, Greene told the magazine Boseman was influenced by his mother, Carolyn, who raised him to be humble.
“[She] always taught him not to have people fuss over him,” Greene said. “He also felt in this business that people trip out about things, and he was a very, very private person.”
Not even directors Boseman worked with, including Spike Lee and Ryan Coogle, knew of his health condition.
“Some people wait a lifetime to get the opportunity that he had,” Henderson told the outlet, “and Chad had so much wisdom, so much knowledge, so much inside of him that he wasn’t going to let this disease stop him from telling these amazing stories and showing his art in the prime of his life.”
Boseman was in “hardcore pain” while working on his final movie, the upcoming Netflix picture “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” but he felt it was worth it to work alongside Denzel Washington on a project adopted from an August Wilson play, Greene said.
Boseman passed away last week at the age of 43 after a four-year battle with colon cancer.
His death shocked the country and revealed touching anecdotes from his life, including that he visited terminally ill children during his treatments and that he married his longtime partner, Taylor Simone Ledward, before his death.
