The magic of Chadwick Boseman continues to live on. At the Gotham Awards on Monday, the late actor posthumously received the Actor Tribute Award in honor of his body of work in films. Accepting the award in his honor, his wife Taylor Simone Ledward Boseman.

“He was the most honest person I’d ever met because he didn’t just stop at speaking the truth: he actively searched for it in himself and those around him and in the moment,” she said of Boseman, who was also nominated for Best Actor for his role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. “The truth can be a very easy thing for the self to avoid, but if one does not live in truth then it’s impossible to live in line with the divine purpose for your life. And so it became how he lived his life, day in and out. Imperfect but determined.”

Boseman, who companied her husband during the production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, called him “‘A vessel to be poured into and out of.”

“He harnessed the power of letting go and letting God’s love shine through,” she continued. “He realized that when one is able to recognize that when their strength does not come from themself, they rarely mess up. That’s what he was doing when he was acting. [He] was not merely telling a story or reading lines on a page, but modeling a path to true fulfillment.”

Chadwick Boseman passed away on August 28, 2020 after a private battle with colon cancer.

 

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