CHADWICK BOSEMAN “MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM”
Key scene: Levee (Boseman) explodes with rage and hurt that stems from the brutal loss of his mother.
What’s so special: This is one of
two “blues arias” director George C. Wolfe says Boseman has in the film. “His anger flows against [bandmate] Cutler and over God and the power of God, and Levee’s rage because of what he witnessed when he was a little boy. Chadwick exposed [Levee’s] vulnerability. It becomes this performance that shifts between unbridled rage and deep hurt. It’s a quicksilver transformation.”