Chadwick Boseman: why ‘Black Panther’ needed an African accent
Lead actor says an African accent is as classical as a British or a European accent
Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman revealed yesterday that doubters had tried to convince him not to give the superhero an African accent – and how proud he was to prove them wrong.
The 41-year-old American stars in the titular role in the 18th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – the first black superhero to get his own stand-alone movie.
“There was a time when people would ask me questions about whether an audience could sit through a movie with a lead character that spoke with that accent,” Boseman said of the east African inflection he gives the superhero – alias King T’Challa.
“I became adamant about the fact that it’s not true,” he added, stressing that none of the naysayers had come from Marvel itself.
“The intonations and melodies inside an African accent are just as classical as a British one or a European one.”
Boseman was speaking at a Beverly Hills news conference along with director Ryan Coogler, co-stars Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o and Danai Gurira and the rest of the cast the morning after Monday’s glittering Hollywood premiere.
The actor got his break after a decade as an obscure television and indie film actor when Marvel came calling in 2014 with a lucrative five-picture deal to play Black Panther.
His appearance in Captain America: Civil War (2016) brought Boseman his first taste of real fame and his celebrity looks set to skyrocket when Black Panther opens on February 16, followed in May by Avengers: Infinity War.