Ryan Coogler had to learn a new skill to direct his latest masterpiece Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The 36-year-old filmmaker, who sat down for an interview with Variety, said he had to learn how to swim when they were shooting the Black Panther sequel.
“If the camera is in the water, actors are in the water, I’ve got to be in there too,” Coogler told Variety. “I had to figure out how to swim, so I could direct this movie.”
Ryan Coogler learning how to swim so he could join the actors and cameras and direct the scenes in the water is one of my favorite things I’ve learned about the making of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
— K E I S H (@MikeishaDache) November 12, 2022
Coogler wasn’t the only one on the set who had to sharpen his swimming skills.
Angela Bassett, who plays T’Challa’s mother, Queen Ramonda, was also unsure about her ability in the water. When Coogler asked her if she can swim, Bassett said she told him “a little bit.”
The 64-year-old actress said Coogler had good reason to ask if she can swim.
“You know, Black girls have this history with water and their hair,” Bassett told Variety. “Some of us can’t swim all that well, because it’s going to mess up that press and curl. It’s a whole thing.”
Bassett said Coogler spoke to her honestly during the filming, reminding about the “important and vital” role of Queen Ramonda’s relationship with Shuri, who plays T’Challa’s sister and the next heir to the throne. Understanding her vital role, Bassett was determined to do whatever it takes to deliver an inspiring performance.
“Almost to the point that I was going to get a complex, like, ‘Am I going to be able to deliver what you’re asking for?’” she said. “She had to be strong. She had to be a mother. She had to be a leader. He was just throwing all of this at me. And then on top of that: ‘Can you swim? Can you put your head in water?’”
In her interview with Variety, Bassett spoke about trying to overcome grief after the loss of Chadwick Boseman, the Black Panther actor who died of colon cancer at age 43 in 2020.
“We’ve been managing it or dealing with it or growing from it or moving onward from the moment that we heard Chadwick had passed,” Bassett said. “It’s been two years of going through whatever cycles of grief that human beings go through.”
Coogler remembers Boseman as such a unique person.
“It’s actually hard to understand him if you had never met him or had a chance to see him work,” the director said. “He really was the most unique person that I’ve ever met.”
