Royal blood

Chadwick Boseman introduces the world to T’Challa, aka Black Panther…

How would you describe Black Panther to someone who’d never heard of him? He has the dual activity of being a monarch of a country, and he’s literally a detective. I think he’s a misunderstood character because he makes decisions sometimes without consulting other people [ laughs], without working as a team. It’s very hard to predict why he does what he does. Will we get a good sense of the character in Civil War? I don’t feel like you’ll have a deep sense of the character because it’s a brief introduction. It leaves a lot to be explored. You want the character to have an arc, but I think there’s a lot you don’t know about him at the end of the movie. How does he fit into this film? He is brought into the story because there are Wakandans who are the victims of the tragedy that happens because of the superheroes. So he’s brought in really as a political [ figure], and he’s useful. It’s not really as a superhero. He fits that whole theme of the movie. Is his identity as secret? The Wakandans know who he is. It’s like, his purpose is to protect his country. It’s not necessarily to protect everyone [ laughs]. He is not that type of superhero. He has a singular purpose in that respect when he’s coming into this movie. How do you approach this sort of role differently to playing a real-life person? You have more in terms of flexibility. At the end of the day it ends up being the same. You still have research. You read comic books. The character has a history. You end up making choices once you absorb all the information, whether it be real or fictional. The main difference is… You can’t go to Wakanda and do research [laughs]. I can’t go talk to T’Challa’s mum or dad. I’m looking for things that are similar to the character in Africa and throughout the world. How much time did you spend in the costume? In any given day, it’s 14 hours in the suit. It’s not the most comfortable thing. You don’t really want to come out of it though. Getting it on and getting it off is much more of a nuisance than keeping it on. The only reason you might is because you’re like, “I’ve got to use the bathroom.” [ laughs] That’s the only reason why you come out. MM