Advertisement

Chadwick Boseman Talks About Bringing the Funk in 'Get On Up'

It was somewhat of a surprise when Chadwick Boseman, the up-and-coming actor who’d delivered a great but understated portrayal of baseball legend Jackie Robinson in last year’s 42, was then cast to play funk legend James Brown in the just-released biopic Get On Up. Skeptics questioned if he could capture the energy and intensity that made the Godfather of Soul such an electrifying performer. Even Boseman himself wondered if it was too soon, as he told Yahoo Movies on the film’s Jackson, Mississippi set.

But the actor got on up and shed 40 pounds for the part; though he plays the showman between the ages of 17 to 63, most of the scenes show Brown in his younger and more svelte years. Boseman also put in serious time mastering the singer’s Slinky-like dance moves — you can see side-by-side comparisons of them turning it loose here. And it certainly seems like all that work and preparation has paid off.

The movie opened Friday, and many audiences and critics are in harmony that Boseman has done Brown right. The film earned an ‘A’ in Cinemascore ,while racking up $14 million over its opening weekend, with reviewers calling Boseman “electric,” “explosive” and “dynamite-powered.” As Andrew O’Hehir from Salon.com wrote, “Chadwick Boseman’s performance as the brilliant, arrogant and magnetic Godfather of Soul may cause theater screens coast to coast to spontaneously catch fire, split their pants at the seams and give up the funk.”

Here’s what else Boseman told us about his hesitations and preparations.

What was the process of getting the role of James Brown. Did you have to audition, or really lobby for it?
I wasn’t really sure whether or not I should be doing it, to be honest with you. It was such a huge undertaking. His life first, and then the physical part of it, the dancing and the singing… So we all had to come to an agreement that it was the right thing. I read the script and talked to [director Tate Taylor]. I ended up coming in and reading for it, really just because I wanted to meet him, not necessarily because I wanted the role. But then, it seemed to be something that they thought, acting-wise, I could pull off. And I was still unsure about the rest of it.

So we did a test. I wanted to see it, and they wanted to see it. We brought in [Aakomon Jones], a choreographer-slash-coach-trainer, who just started me with James Brown’s vocabulary. And once we did that, we put the wig on, and we brought in [Sharen Davis] to do wardrobe. They saw the test, I saw the test. And I was like, ‘Let’s give it a try.’ [Laughs]

Was there hesitation in taking the role having just played such another huge American icon in Jackie Robinson?
That was definitely part of the reason why I was, like, ‘I don’t know if I should do it. Especially right now.’ The timing. I hadn’t just finished 42, but it had come out, and I had done another movie [Draft Day], but I knew that they might come out around the same time. I didn’t want people to think, ‘Well, all he does is play real people.’ [Laughs] But, yeah, that was definitely part of the hesitation.

Did you have to do anything to physically transform it?
Yeah. I lost a lot of weight. I did Draft Day and I probably gained 22- to 25 pounds for that movie, from where I was playing Jackie Robinson. So then, I lost that weight, plus ,I lost about 15 or 20 more to do this, because I felt like I was too big. I’m a bigger guy than James Brown and I knew that that would be an issue. Especially his younger years… I had to figure out [what age] I would be playing the most. For the older years, I knew we could figure out some movie magic with wardrobe and hair and makeup to make me bigger for those scenes. And then there was the actually dancing, which helped me lose that weight [Laughs]. So, yeah, over six months, it was about 40 pounds.

Eddie Murphy has that famous James Brown routine in Delirious where he talks about the singer’s made up words – “I don’t understand s—t James says.” Were those tricky to master?
No, for me it’s trying to find an organic reason for those to happen, especially outside of the songs. The music in this movie, it’s mostly live recordings of concerts, as opposed to studio recordings. So it’s him singing, and me singing underneath him — not to be confused with lip-synching. And then there are also scenes where he might be coming up with something or singing to someone in his family. So, some of those James Brown nuances may come out in a scene and they’ve gotta be organic. Would he do that in real life? That was my take on it.

Is there more pressure that comes along with playing icons like James Brown and Jackie Robinson versus a fictional character like your role in Draft Day?
Yes and no, because you’re doing the same thing that you would always do, acting-wise. And at a certain point, you have to forget about the pressure. You know people are going to say what they’re going to say, after the fact. So you feel that, but that’s before you really get on set. That’s why you’re doing your research, and that’s why you’re preparing for the role.

Once you’re on set, it’s like everyone who is [on set] consulting is helping you on that process. We had Keith Jenkins, who played in his band, on set. We had family members on set everyday. So you gauge yourself, based upon those people ,as opposed to everybody outside. The people outside, they may know James Brown from one thing, one interview, one song. They haven’t studied all the footage and spent time with him and spent time with his family. They’re judging you based on one slice of that reality, as opposed to the reality and perspective given to you [by his friends and family]. So you can’t think about it too much, because you’re in your own bubble with it.

What were you surprised to learn about James Brown throughout playing him?
That he was both a persona and a person, and he was very aware of that. In all the biographies, and just watching him, you can see that he’s aware of the James Brown persona [he created]. And to make everybody buy into the James Brown persona, he had to be one of the most amazing leaders and manipulators of people. That power that he had is something amazing. So when I was on the set, I would try not to come out of the character. And people on set would buy into that idea and that persona, too, in a way that I’ve never seen people do. It’s kind of hard to explain, but it’s something that you feel from the people around you when you have that swagger that he had. That’s something I definitely didn’t get before I started. There’s no way you could get it until you actually feel it and see it.

Want to see Get On Up? Visit our Showtimes page to get tickets.