’In the end that’s all you have. Your integrity.’
Viola Davis lauds ‘Rainey’ co-star Chadwick Boseman
A celebratory aura surrounds Netflix’s film version this Friday of August Wilson’s Tony-nominated “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Like Wilson’s “Fences” it is another chapter in his 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle examining Black lives in every decade of the 20th century. Again, it is produced by Denzel Washington and stars Viola Davis as Ma Rainey, a raunchy doyenne of the blues, who arrives in 1920s Chicago to record.
There’s another aura suffusing “Rainey” — from Chadwick Boseman who stars as Levee, Ma’s hottempered trumpeter who explodes into fights and violence. Boseman’s shocking death last August at 43 (from colorectal cancer) makes this his final performance.
In a Zoom discussion with the cast, Colman Domingo who plays trombonist Cutler said, “That man had this fight in him to the very end. Now it makes sense in hindsight why he’s played so many kings in rapid succession.
“As if he knew he didn’t have enough time. But he made such a noble impression. This film seals the deal.”
“Here’s the thing I want to say about Chadwick,” Davis, 55, began. “He lived in the moment. So all his choices had to deal with legacy. If there’s one thing we take from this time with COVID is: All we have is the now. That’s all we have.
“So you all know that people mix business discussions with artistic discussions all the time. They talk about the ‘business’ when they think they’re talking about the art. But they’re talking about the business.
“We have a lot of frauds in our business. Let’s be honest, we have a lot of people coming out of Nowhere, taking the bus from Wherever, never having done Anything. And they want to be, I don’t know, Meryl Streep in two seconds.
“And this is a man who was an ART-IST. An artist meaning, you have to let go of your ego, your vanity, you can’t mistake your presence for the event. You have to tap into a wellspring of pain, trauma, joy. All of that! And use that as fuel for your work.
“And in the end that’s all you have. Your integrity. He was just one of those.
“And they’re a diamond in the rough in this business. You can have a 50-, 60-year career and never work with a Chadwick Boseman.”
Added director George C. Wolfe, “We all feel the extraordinary complexity because we all went on the journey with him.”