Chadwick Boseman Was Even More Incredible Than We Thought - Exclusive

In a year when the award show was being criticized by Hollywood for lack of diversity, justice was served at the 2021 Golden Globes when Chadwick Boseman posthumously received the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. The late Black Panther actor was honored for his performance in Netflix's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom for his portrayal of Levee Green, a fictional trumpeter who has a complicated relationship with his boss, real-life jazz singer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis), and even hotter relations with Ma's fictional girlfriend Dussie Mae, portrayed by Taylour Paige.

Paige — a California-born actor whose latest role, as of this writing, is Eleanor in Eddie Huang's coming-of-age basketball film Boogie — recalled her experience on set of Ma Rainey as "pretty incredible" in an exclusive interview with Nicki Swift. "I can't still wrap my head around it," she said. "I just feel incredibly lucky and blessed that I got to share space with him and learn from him."

Based on a play by August Wilson, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was universally acclaimed upon its release in late 2020, receiving nominations ahead of the 2021 NAACP Image Awards, the Critics Choice Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Chatting with Nicki Swift after Chadwick Boseman's posthumous win at the 2021 Golden Globes, Taylour Paige was extremely touched and spoke with a certain poignancy, noting that Boseman had "[bowed] out in the greatest performance of his life, both inner and outer."

Like Boseman's former co-stars in the Marvel Cinematic Universe who celebrated the actor's resilience and strength after his shocking death in August 2020 following a colon cancer diagnosis, Paige had nothing but admirable things to say about performing alongside him. "He was such a gentleman, and was so available to be of service to the truth of our ancestors, these people we played," Paige said. "It was magic, a gift."

Boogie is now playing in select theaters.