The Shrine Auditorium theater erupted in deafening cheers on Sunday as Black Panther scooped the SAG award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, topping off a year in which the film enthralled both critics and audiences, took a massive $1.347 billion at the box office, and became the first superhero movie ever to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.
Speaking to press backstage, Danai Gurira, who plays the warrior Okoye, said one of the reasons the film resonated with so many was its representation of Wakanda—a thriving African continent without the damage of colonization.
“We were able to create a world through [director Ryan Coogler’s] amazing vision that was allowed to function through their greatness without hindrance,” she said, “so you saw very powerful female characters, you saw a world that was thriving with excellence, a continent undisturbed by violations or colonizations.”
The film inspires people with the “idea of that being something that we see more of in the world,” she added.
When the cast were accepting the award on stage, Chadwick Boseman, who plays T’Challa/Black Panther, referenced the lyrics of Nina Simone’s song “Young, Gifted and Black” written by Weldon Irvine, and backstage, he explained why those words are so deeply important to him.
“That’s one of my favorite songs,” he said. “It’s one of my favorite sayings in poetry. It speaks to the fact that you have the same dreams as other people. You have equal, if not more talent at times, but you don’t have the same opportunities. You don’t necessarily have the same doors open to you, the same nepotism, the same money or resources that could be put towards your training.”
Boseman talked about the legacy of generations of prejudice and lack of opportunity. “You a lot of times don’t have family members that have ever achieved the things that you want to do, and so when you aspire to do something that is outside the realm of what the world would see you doing, and also what your family’s ever achieved—[like, for] some people, they’re the first [in their family] to ever have graduated from college. To be young, gifted and black is all of that. It’s to have everything but then not quite be able to grasp it. And to be able to persevere through that.”
Fortunately for its huge worldwide fanbase, Black Panther’s sequel is in the works, and though it’s not confirmed he’ll reappear as his character Erik Killmonger, Michael B. Jordan said “an opportunity to come back and make a second one” has huge appeal and building even further on the film’s legacy would be “a tremendous accomplishment.”
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