With the critically-acclaimed drama Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom now streaming on Netflix, fans are flocking to social media with calls for Chadwick Boseman to posthumously win the Best Actor Oscar for his performance. As we all know, Boseman passed away in August after a four-year battle with colon cancer. With his final movie role giving Boseman’s fans one last incredible performance from the actor, it’s perhaps the perfect time to bestow the Black Panther star with his long-overdue Academy Award.
“I had to rewatch the two monologues Chadwick Boseman delivers in #MaRaineysBlackBottom. For those two scenes alone he would deserve to win the Best Actor Oscar,” one fan writes on Twitter.
Another tweet reads, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom exceeded my expectations. @violadavis is powerful and mesmerising as Ma Rainey. But I must admit that Chadwick Boseman steals the spotlight and had me in tears with his outstanding performance. They both deserve Oscars. 10/10.”
“Chadwick Boseman MUST WIN posthumous Oscar for Best Actor. His raw/ferocious presence was felt throughout. Embodied playing a regular person which was refreshing who curses, cuts up & has ambitions that are small/relatable powerful to watch,” a fan says.
Another fan writes, “When I initially heard #ChadwickBoseman’s Oscar buzz for this August Wilson adaptation, I presumed it was just because this is his final movie & everyone is still grieving after his tragic passing. However, he genuinely gives a stellar performance.”
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is directed by George C. Wolfe and written by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Based on an August Wilson play, the movie stars Viola Davis as real-life blues singer Ma Rainey and her band in 1920s Chicago. Boseman co-stars as trumpeter Levee Green, and Colman Domingo, Glynn Turman, Michael Potts, Jeremy Shamos, Jonny Coyne, and Taylour Paige also star.
Given his acclaimed performances in movies like 42 and Marshall, it’s strange that Boseman hasn’t yet been nominated for his acting at the Academy Awards. Fortunately, Boseman’s odds of getting the nomination for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom seem pretty high. In the fall, it was reported that Netflix had already begun their own campaign for Boseman to get Oscar consideration for his role in the movie. With a 99% Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, the critical consensus is also that the movie is one of the best titles to be released in 2020. Whether this translates into a posthumous Oscar win for Boseman remains to be seen, but it’s clear that many fans want to see it happen.
Black Panther was given many nominations at the Oscars last year, winning for Best Score, Best Costume Design, and Best Production Design. Boseman was not nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars, though he won awards for the role at the BET Awards, People’s Choice Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Blacck Reel Awards, and NAACP Image Awards. Recently, he was named as the Hero for the Ages at the MTV Movie and TV Awards: Greatest of All Time event.
To check out Boseman’s final performance for yourself, you can watch Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom now streaming on Netflix.