Captain America: Civil War has performances from actors such as Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., and Scarlett Johansson, but directors Joe and Anthony Russo have told EW that they were particularly impressed with Chadwick Boseman’s portrayal of the African superhero, Black Panther.
Boseman, whose known for his portrayals of Jackie Robinson in 42 and James Brown in Get On Up, is the first actor to play Black Panther in a live-action movie–a role that the Russo brothers felt a lot of pressure to get the character “right.”
“Black Panther is so revered. It’s his first time on screen. We put so much pressure on ourselves. I think more pressure for that character alone than we did anything in the movie just because as a comic book fan I thought it was so important to get the interpretation of that character right,” Joe said.
The extra pressure to portray the character properly was helped by Boseman, who used his knowledge of martial arts and African accents to bring the character to life.
“You can see from the other roles that he’s done that he builds a character from a very deep place. Like what he did with Panther in this movie was remarkable. He has a martial arts history that he himself was able to use and incorporate into how the character moved,” said Anthony.
“[Boseman’s accent] was based upon influences around where the fictional country exists in Africa and he basically stayed in that accent throughout the entire shoot so that he wouldn’t lose it. Even when he was off camera he would speak in that accent.”
Boseman will play Black Panther again when the character’s solo film, which Creed‘s Ryan Coogler is on board to direct, releases to theaters in 2018.
If you don’t know who Black Panther is and want to find out, you can take a look at our gallery, which goes in-depth on the King of Wakanda.
Additionally, if you’re interested in more of GameSpot’s Captain America: Civil War coverage, you can check out our Next Big Movie feature. You can also take a look at some of our videos and articles in the links below: