Los Angeles: In a soul-stirring tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman, his Black Panther co-star Lupita Nyong'o remembered the actor as someone who possessed "immortal energy".
Boseman died on August 28 following a four year-long secret battle with colon cancer. He was 43.
He attained global stardom as T'Challa of fictitious African country Wakanda aka superhero Black Panther in the MCU films such as Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
Nyong'o, one of Boseman's colleagues who had not publicly reacted to his passing, shared a poignant note on Instagram as an attempt to "make sense" of the actor's demise.
"I am struggling to think and speak about my friend, Chadwick Boseman, in the past tense. It doesn't make sense. The news is a punch to my gut every morning," she begins.
"I am aware that we are all mortal, but you come across some people in life that possess a immortal energy, that seem like they have existed before, that are exactly where they are supposed to always be - here! ... that seem ageless.... Chadwick was one of those people," she wrote on Tuesday.
The actor, who played Nakia, an undercover spy for Wakanda and T'Challa's love interest in the 2018 blockbuster, said she was struck by Boseman's "quiet powerful presence" when they started working on the film.
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"Chadwick was a man who made the most of his time, and somehow also managed to take his time. You got the sense that he was fully present and also somehow fully aware of things in the distant future. As a result, I noticed that Chadwick never seemed rushed! He commanded his time with ease..."
Nyong'o said Boseman, who led Black Panther as the first MCU film with a predominantly black cast, was capable enough to shoulder the movie that went on to break new ground both in pop culture and at award shows for celebrating black identity.