Chadwick Boseman's Friends Mourn the Actor in Portrait of an Artist Netflix Special: Watch the Moving Trailer

Chadwick Boseman will always be remembered as an artist.

That's how the late star himself said he wanted to be known in the trailer for Chadwick Boseman: Portrait of an Artist.

The just-announced special, hitting Netflix on April 17 and available just for a limited 30-day window, gathers a group of A-List supporters and friends of Boseman to honor the actor. It's the first of its kind since Boseman died in August 2020 after a private four-year struggle with colon cancer. He was 43.

"I'm Chadwick Boseman, I am an artist. People call me an actor. I wouldn't call myself an actor. I would call myself an artist," Boseman's voice is heard at the beginning of the trailer.

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The short clip then previews the talent that will be honoring Boseman, including his Ma Rainey's Black Bottom costar Viola Davis.

"You know you have to step up when you're in his presence," Davis recalls in the clip. "He's looking at your work and he's like, really hyper focused — on the craft, on the process. That's Chad."

Victoria Will/Invision/AP/Shutterstock Chadwick Boseman

Others appearing in the special include his Black Panther costar Danai Gurira, his idol Denzel Washington, director Spike Lee and Phylicia Rashad, his acting instructor at Howard University.

"He was not going to limit his experience of growth and learning because of cultural differences," Rashad is seen saying in the clip.

The special comes as Boseman is the frontrunner to posthumously win his first Oscar at the Academy Awards on April 25. The late actor has been honored with posthumous awards like the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild in the run-up to the show for his performance in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.