Chadwick Boseman’s loyalty to his craft is one for the history books, and while many fans might not understand the real reason why the actor chose to keep his cancer diagnosis under wraps, his agent Michael Greene came out to explain the actor’s thought process behind such an elaborate ruse.
According to Greene, Boseman’s mother was one of his biggest motivations behind keeping his diagnosis under wraps. With the way he was raised, and his uncharacteristically private nature, it only seemed natural to the actor.
Greene told The Hollywood Reporter, "[Carolyn] always taught him not to have people fuss over him. He also felt in this business that people trip out about things, and he was a very, very private person."
While Boseman "was really in hardcore pain" on the set for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the actor turned to the positives and "felt that being able to be with Denzel [Washington] and to launch this cycle of August Wilson['s plays] at Netflix was so exciting to him."
Greene was one of the few handfuls of people in Boseman’s life who had information regarding the full extent of the actor’s diagnosis. Both he and Boseman’s personal trainer Addison Henderson, respected the actor’s wishes for privacy because they wanted fans to focus on his legacy as an actor, rather than his diagnosis.
Henderson also had an interview with The Hollywood Reporter regarding his professional relationship with the actor and it was there that he was quoted saying, "For us, it was just like, 'Let’s keep going, let’s keep doing what you want to do, let’s keep training.' And then, me and [collaborator Logan Coles] and his family, his wife [Taylor Simone Ledward], we were always just here to support him. He was just living his artistic life to the fullest and using his time and his moment to really affect people."