Chadwick Boseman Could Make History This Awards Season
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which stars Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman, hits Netflix on December 18 and is the last film starring the now deceased actor. Early positive chatter around the film and Davis and Boseman’s portrayals have encouraged both actors for awards season, according to Entertainment Weekly.
In addition, Boseman is also getting award buzz for his role in Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods. If he receives nominations for both roles, he’ll be the first person to posthumously be nominated for two acting awards in one year.
In the summer of 2019, one year before Boseman died after a four year battle with colon cancer, the actor filmed what would become his final role in Netflix’s new drama, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, co-starring alongside Davis who plays Ma Rainey.
Directed by George C. Wolfe, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is an adaptation of the 1982 August Wilson play about the legendary blues singer from Chicago. Boseman plays an ambitious trumpeter named Levee. The film takes us back to 1927 as we follow Rainey and a group of musicians working through a Chicago recording session. Known as the “Mother of the Blues,” Rainey was one of the first blues artists to record her work.
Watch the trailer below:
