Chadwick Boseman battled 'hardcore pain' to complete final movie

Chadwick Boseman was determined to finish work on his final movie, Netflix's Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, before his tragic death from colon cancer last Friday.

After the Black Panther star lost his battle with the disease, those in the star's inner circle remembered the “very, very private” actor in a chat with The Hollywood Reporter.

His agent, Michael Greene, who was reportedly among a remarkably tight circle of family and friends who knew about his illness, along with his producing partner, Logan Coles, and his trainer, Addison Henderson, admitted the star's mother Carolyn influenced him to keep his battle secret.

“(She) always taught him not to have people fuss over him,” Greene said. “He also felt in this business that people trip out about things, and he was a very, very private person.”

Not even directors Boseman worked with, including Spike Lee and Ryan Coogler, knew of his health condition.

“Some people wait a lifetime to get the opportunity that he had,” Henderson explained, “and Chad had so much wisdom, so much knowledge, so much inside of him that he wasn’t going to let this disease stop him from telling these amazing stories and showing his art in the prime of his life.”

Despite being in “hardcore pain” while working on his final movie, the actor felt it was worth it to work alongside Denzel Washington on a project adopted from an August Wilson play, Greene added.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is set to debut on the streamer on 27 November.