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Well, I think I’ve finally accepted it: Chadwick Boseman’s passing is always going to feel utterly devastating. I’m coming to terms with the fact that whenever I pass a headline about or a photo of Chadwick Boseman, I’m going to be filled with an overwhelming sense of sorrow. They say time heals all wounds and maybe they do, but in this case, it feels as though they’re merely being bandaged.
Maybe it’s the suddenness in which he passed and how that makes us all feel about the vulnerability of life. That someone like Boseman, who seemed like he was at the peak of his powers in every conceivable way, could suddenly cease to exist following a four-year-long battle his waged in private. Maybe it’s the talent he delivered and the potential he left unfulfilled. Whatever it is, I now realize that the pain of Boseman’s death will never feel like it’s healing, especially when coming across stories like these.
In a recent interview with Empire, Golden Globe-nominated actress Sienna Miller that Boseman took money out of his own 21 Bridges salary to help improve her own pay.
“He produced 21 Bridges, and had been really active in trying to get me to do it,” Miller tells Empire. “He was a fan of my work, which was thrilling, because it was reciprocated from me to him, tenfold. So he approached me to do it, he offered me this film, and it was at a time when I really didn’t want to work anymore. I’d been working non-stop and I was exhausted, but then I wanted to work with him.”
“I didn’t know whether or not to tell this story, and I haven’t yet. But I am going to tell it, because I think it’s a testament to who he was,” Miller says. “This was a pretty big budget film, and I know that everybody understands about the pay disparity in Hollywood, but I asked for a number that the studio wouldn’t get to. And because I was hesitant to go back to work and my daughter was starting school and it was an inconvenient time, I said, ‘I’ll do it if I’m compensated in the right way.’ And Chadwick ended up donating some of his salary to get me to the number that I had asked for. He said that that was what I deserved to be paid.” [via Empire]
Miller continued by saying Boseman’s kindness was unprecedented in Hollywood and that his act of kindness was one of the most astounding things she has ever experienced.
“It was about the most astounding thing that I’ve experienced,” she says. “That kind of thing just doesn’t happen. He said, ‘You’re getting paid what you deserve, and what you’re worth.’ It’s just unfathomable to imagine another man in that town behaving that graciously or respectfully. In the aftermath of this I’ve told other male actor friends of mine that story and they all go very very quiet and go home and probably have to sit and think about things for a while. But there was no showiness, it was, ‘Of course I’ll get you to that number, because that’s what you should be paid.’”
Think about that — at a time when he was literally fighting for his life, Boseman was concerned with making sure others felt whole. We really did lose one of the good ones. Rest in greatest power, Chadwick, we’ll all miss you.
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