Denzel Washington paid tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman as a ‘gentle soul and brilliant artist’ two years after it was revealed that the acting legend secretly paid for the 43-year-old Black Panther star to study acting at Oxford.
‘He was a gentle soul and a brilliant artist, who will stay with us for eternity through his iconic performances over his short yet illustrious career,’ Washington, 65, told The Hollywood Reporter.
‘God bless Chadwick Boseman.’
Washington, the two-time Academy Award winner, had a hand in helping Boseman’s budding acting career.
In 2018, Boseman revealed that he may not have gotten to where he is now without the indirect help of the Training Day star.
Last year, Boseman spoke at the American Film Institute dinner honoring Washington with a lifetime achievement award and recalled the story.
‘I know personally that your generosity extends past what you have given on the stage and screen,’ Boseman told Washington and the rest of the audience in Los Angeles.
‘Many of you already know the story that Mr. Washington, when asked by Phylicia Rashad to join her in assisting nine theater students from Howard University who had been accepted to a summer acting program at the British Academy of Dramatic Acting in Oxford,’ Boseman said.
‘He gracefully and privately agreed to contribute. As fate would have it, I was one of the students that he paid for.’
Boseman added: ‘Imagine receiving a letter that your tuition for that summer was paid for and your benefactor was none other than the dopest actor on the planet.’
Boseman credited Washington with being a trailblazer for black actor in Hollywood, saying: ‘There is no Black Panther without Denzel Washington.’
‘And not just because of me, but my whole cast. That generation stands on your shoulders,’ he said.
Boseman died at the age of 43 on Friday after enduring a four-year battle with colon cancer.