Lupita Nyong’o tears up while remembering Chadwick Boseman at film festival

15 October, 2024

Lupita Nyong’o broke down in tears while remembering her late Black Panther co-star Chadwick Boseman at the BFI London Film Festival.

She recently attended the BFI London Film Festival for a discussion on her career, where clips of the most important films under her belt were show onscreen. Upon a clip of Black Panther being broadcast, Nyong’o welled up, admitting that she hadn’t seen Black Panther since Boseman’s death in 2020, per Variety.

As she choked back tears, the discussion’s moderator offered to move on to another film, but Nyong’o denied: “The grief is just the love with no place to put it. I don’t run away from the tears or the grief. You just live with it. That experience will never be separate”

Variety adds that Nyong’o said of Boseman: “I don’t know whether I’ll ever be done shedding my tears from losing my friend, but I’m also like, wow, we get to see him [in the film]. We get to see him alive. And that’s so wonderful.”

Chadwick Boseman died at the age of 43 in 2020 following a secret four-year illness with colon cancer.

Recently, Nyong’o opened up about her experience filming A Quiet Place: Day One, saying the experience was “therapeutic” following the loss of Boseman. In the film, Nyong’o portrays Sam, a woman sick with cancer. Speaking to PEOPLE magazine, Nyong’o said it was “scary to have to go there” with the role, especially for a character who “is really facing their mortality…and whose life is slipping between her fingers.”

Lupita Nyong'o and Chadwick Boseman share a laugh in 2018
Lupita Nyong’o and Chadwick Boseman. Credit: Shahar Azran/WireImage

“[It] was daunting to have to go there, psychologically and emotionally,” she said. “In the end, it was actually very therapeutic because I had just experienced not too many years ago the death of Chadwick Boseman, which shook me to my core. I definitely was thinking about that a lot.”

“What I came to realise is that it’s really important to be reminded of our mortality, because then we live life just a little more intentionally,” she added. “When we think we have all the time in the world, we can really take people for granted and experiences for granted.”

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