By Gill Pringle
Skins, Psychoville, Get Out, and now this…
I’m starting to realise how crazy it is. When did I have the realisation… oh yeah, we did a press picture the other day. I was there, Angela [Bassett] was there, Forest [Whitaker] was there, Chad [Boseman] was there, Lupita [Nyong’o] was there, Danai [Gurira] was there, Mike [Jordan] was there, and I thought, “Oh, I’m in this film… I don’t know how I got here.” My entry level was the short film that I did back home, which Ryan [Coogler] saw, so I got cast in this in the summer when I was doing a play. It’s been surreal, but it’s not surreal because you’re just doing it. When I stepped on set of this, I had never seen anything like this. I think that if one-person sees this, they have to tell another ten because it’s just that ‘wow’ feeling. This film is breaking new ground.
What would this have meant if you saw this as a kid?
Everything, because of the African characters. My household is like a mini Uganda. It’s an African blockbuster how I see it. There is a scene where Black Panther comes back, and I genuinely got chills when Chad came out. To me it would have been kind of mind blowing, and I still think that it’s going to be mind blowing as a 28 year old.
How are you finding the accent… is it hard to do?
It’s long. Having to stay on set with the accent is kind of annoying, so you won’t have real cool conversations with anyone. You tend to miss a vowel and have to go and work on the accent. But it was really important, as if we were in an African tribe. Every character says something, so it feels real, it feels authentic, and a lot of these actors are from African descent. Everyone wanted to reach for that authenticity.
How much do you reckon this will mean to Africa?
It’s interesting because I have been to Uganda to visit family. The hunger for films is so much more; they are starving for these stories, especially with people who look like them. The infrastructure isn’t there to tally it up, like what China is, or what America is, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t big. With the structure of what the West considers to be a success, there is still work to be done. This is a story about family, so seeing this, as an international film could be beneficial. We are using African aesthetic and the African authenticity to portray those values.
How much bromance are we going to see between you and Chadwick [Boseman]?
I don’t know if I should say. It is an interesting frame of question that one, so yeah that’s it. [Laughs]. They are tight, T’Challa and my character go way back, and when T’Challa finally comes back to Wakanda he steps into the role of his trusted advisor. You will see it, it’s a major transition, like any country that is changing.
Did you do any specific research for this character?
I did a lot of horse training, a lot of stunt training and a lot of fighting training. I did a lot of research on the fighting style. Then Ryan gave me a challenge of looking into this tribe in Africa that is hidden under blankets. When you see Wakanda, you will notice that it is sort of hidden; you don’t want to show what you’re about. So, the tribe was sort of a metaphor for the blanket in which Wakanda is hidden under. The first people you see are my tribe.
What is special about Black Panther as a superhero in comparison to the other heroes?
I can’t answer that in comparison, I can only tell you what I think is special. For me, he is an empathetic dude. He has been pushed to the front with this responsibility that he has and then he is this incredible fighter, and a leader of this incredible hidden country. I haven’t seen anything like this, this African story, it feels truthful.
Since working on the film, have you been getting offers for bigger projects?
It’s changed yeah. My phone is different; some of the stuff that comes out of it feels weird. I had a Face Time with a director and I thought “Huh, you know who I am?” I won’t change what I’m doing, I got this role doing what I was doing before, so why would I change.
Black Panther is in cinemas February 15, 2018
