Chadwick Boseman Actually Learned How To Play Trumpet For 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'

Chadwick Boseman put his all into his final role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

According to his co-stars, the late actor actually learned how to play the trumpet for his role as Levee.

“He truly learned to play. I think everyone was like, ‘Oh, that’s what you’re doing, Chad? Okay, now I’m gonna learn too,” Colman Domingo revealed in a featurette for the movie, which is streaming now on Netflix.

He added, “I love that [Chadwick's] like, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna challenge you. We’re gonna challenge each other’.”

Chadwick‘s co-star Glynn Turman also noted that as soon as you entered the hotel they were all staying at, all you could hear was Chadwick‘s trumpet playing.

“We were all staying in the same hotel. It started sounding like, you know, a music school,” he shared. “You get off the elevator and you could hear Chadwick, you know, working on it. Made you say, ‘Hey, I don’t want to practice right now, but I better get to start practicing.’”

Posthumously, Chadwick was named the winner of the Best Actor award at the L.A. Film Critics Association Awards over the weekend, and was honored by the New York Film Critics Circle as well.