Viola Davis speaks in honor of Chadwick Boseman on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Watch Viola Davis speaks in honor of Chadwick Boseman on the Hollywood Walk of Fame - Variety on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00I always want to say the Malcolm X quote, which is make it plain, but I have to believe that

00:12Chadwick is still alive. I can't use the word gone or death, really, when thinking about him.

00:26You know, it's like the quote, you know, when the last person who dies, who has a memory

00:35of you, that's when you'll truly be dead. My memory of Chadwick is, we did Ma Rainey's

00:52Black Bottom soon before he left us. And he was always trying to engage me on the set,

01:05always sort of telling me in like unassuming ways that

01:11I think that he understood the cap of success, but the true power and significance of transcendence.

01:25And that was usually the gist of all of our conversations of sort of

01:30what happens when you realize that you're possibly transitioning.

01:42That there's something else, right?

01:44And I would say to him, you know, Chadwick, I sort of agree with you. There is a cap to success.

02:00I haven't found my thing yet. When I'm not acting, I don't know who I am. He was like,

02:06oh no, Viola, you can't let that happen. What I do is I carry my djembe drum everywhere I go. I

02:14don't care if it gets in the way of luggage. I don't care if, you know, I have to argue with

02:20the airline students of where I'm going to put it. I need my drum.

02:26And you know, that djembe drum is a talking drum, y'all. And he would play it on the set. You could

02:38hear it in his trailer. It was more than just a sound. It was more than just music.

02:48Chadwick. I mean, it resounded through the entire sound stage. And he would play it fervently.

03:03Chadwick, you channeled the divine.

03:10You were a conduit, a source of connectiveness,

03:16that every single human being that's faced, who is on this earth, is searching for.

03:26Trying to connect to each other. Trying to connect to our art. Trying to know like the

03:34Cherokee birth blessing. May we live long enough to understand why we were born.

03:41And that was Chadwick. More than just an actor who you can observe on screen doing wonderful work.

03:50It was work. It was work that reminded us that we are less alone.

03:56It's best to use all of life. Leave death nothing but the dregs. Nothing but a burnt out castle.

04:14And Chadwick was a castle. Chadwick was a mighty, mighty elixir that sort of stirred up that alchemy

04:28that we're all in search of, which is meaning.

04:32I celebrate him today.

04:40And I say to him, I hope all the angels in heaven just sang him to a beautiful rest.

04:51And I thank him for what he left behind in me, which is a burning amber that always

05:02guides me to a higher meaning of my work and my purpose.

05:07This star, as beautiful as it is on the walk of fame, shines a whole lot less brighter than

05:20Chadwick is in heaven. Thank you.

05:24Thank you, Chadwick.