Chadwick Boseman on Playing Jackie Robinson

What's up, Young Hollywood?

I'm Chadwick Boseman. We're gonna do a little slip and slide. Well, not really. That is you know, I please keep that and put that on put that on cuz I I like that, but it's not gonna sound right. I said it and I immediately went, wait a second. We can do that. But but I don't think y'all are gonna air that. Game's too important. Just get him out. Play ball. You're a tough man, Jack. Just get him out.

Here with Chadwick Boseman. So great to have you here. I feel like I wanna call you Jackie.

Great to be here. No, don't do that. No, no. And plus you would call me Jack.

Would that be like the She called him Rachel called him Jack. She still calls him Jack, yes. She called him Jack. Well, I know you met you met with her before as you were filming and before you started filming. And she sort of you said that you didn't know 100% if they gave you the green light, like they kinda put you through the ringer, the family.

No, it wasn't the ringer. They're they're really nice, like and loving and but they just wanted to make sure that I was that I was the right person, so. Yeah.

That you were up to speed.

So like when I met even the the grandkids and I didn't even know who they were. Um, because I met them at at the Jackie Robinson Foundation dinner. Uh, they just came up to me, didn't introduce themselves, didn't say hello. And just started poking and prodding and measuring and It's like you're playing our grandfather. We're just checking you out.

Did they really? But I think you also said like the stars sort of aligned and you kinda had a a sense that you might get this role.

I had a premonition. I was watching the World Series uh the ninth inning. And I only caught like the eighth and ninth inning because I I just finished a play like a few hours before. So I was watching them celebrate. Um, the Cardinals. And it just came to me. I was like, I'm about to play Jackie Robinson.

Really?

Yeah. Blotta hits a hard ground ball right at Reese, who fires it over to Jackie at first. What? Robinson is down. Slaughter spikes him high up on the leg and he is down. Damn it, Slaughter, you know what you're doing. You spiked my guy. Jackie. You're Jackie. No, no, give me up. No, no, give me up.

I know you said when you watched this film you cried. Which is incredible.

I have, I have.

You know what made me cry aside from the film? The little boy running. The Subway commercials with like all the Subway commercials? Yes, with like Blake Griffin and Ryan Howard and all these athletes sort of playing tribute. Have you seen it?

I have seen it, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was fun to know that they were all involved in, you know, I think that's one of the great things about the film is that it it hits so many different people. And so it's just fun to see them involved in it.

Do you think that somebody like a Ryan Howard who's hit like 200 home runs faster than any player in history will have that sort of legendary status like Jackie?

In the game, yes. In the game, yes. I think he's definitely gonna be a legend, a Hall of Famer. Uh, in terms of the social, um, significance, like the players don't have to do the same thing that he had to do. Right. It's a different different climate than it used to be. Yeah, like your your Jackie Robinsons, your Muhammad Ali's, like they they're not just touching, um, the sport that they play but but they're they're going beyond it and affecting the world beyond them. And a lot of times I'm not saying that players don't do things like they have their foundations and charities and and what not. But but they don't have to be as open and a lot of times don't want to be as open as Jackie Robinson or. Yeah, from that time.

And I know you just met Spike Lee, didn't you just meet Spike Lee on on

I told you that.

Oh, a little bird. I have inside information here. Did he say anything to you about the film?

Great kid. He's a he's crazy. So

Oh, Drake. Yeah, he was there, too.

Drake was there, too.

Well, you're a bit of a rapper, aren't you?

No, who told stop. You had you've been doing some crazy research.

Well, what's fantastic about you is you came into this I don't even know if you you've said you didn't even know if you intended to be an actor. You're a writer, you're a director, you've written a lot of plays and you had sort of you had a Hip-Hop theater. Right.

Hip-Hop theater.

So what is Hip-Hop theater?

Essentially, we would take the aesthetics of Hip-Hop and put it into a theatrical form. So you could do Romeo and Juliet Hip-Hop style. But you don't have to tell Shakespeare's story, but it could be like a classical language. So, it would be something like measure the tears of the not quite widow dame of our Prince, nicknamed Deep for the depth of his thought and charity but Christian Joshua, Minister of Verity, held high in the hearts of students and teacher, thug and preacher alike. Something like that. You would play around with it.

So before I let you go, I need two things from you. Number one. No freestyle. I won't ask you to freestyle. Sliding tips, cuz I slid once into home plate. Mm. And I was tagged out.

You know you the what we did the the first few times that I that I slid was we used the slip and slide. And it was fun. It was the best. That's like the little kid thing. Yeah, the little kid. We we didn't we didn't use the little kid version. We just got some tubing and and a hose and just sprayed it. And so, we we went about our own.

Talk about research for a film. You get to go and hang out on the slip and slide.

Yeah, no, we we brought it out to the baseball field and I'm told that players do that anyway, like. But it was fun because you you can do it and you don't have to get hurt and get a whole bunch of strawberries on your leg the first time. So, um, we used that a couple times and then, you know, I was I then I went at it all, all, like all into it. So, um, I would suggest that you get on the slip and slide. So,

It's summer coming up.

yeah, yeah and just make make it a fun thing and then and then dive in the dirt.

Okay, and then the last thing. I know you met President Obama. You screened the film at the White House. Right. And we love to tease, we've had a little thing with Jimmy Kimmel going back and forth. We tried to steal a security guard Garmo before. I know you wouldn't tell him what Barack Obama. I can't tell you what told you. I can't tell you. some advice he gave you about your career. Yeah. Will you whisper in my ear? I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you what Obama said to him. You said, play for me. I'm gonna start doing that. Thank you for coming in. All right. Great to see you. Congratulations.