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How Chadwick Thanked Denzel Years Later

Chadwick revealed that in 2018 he met Denzel Washington and was very grateful for that experience. He invited Denzel to the film’s premiere in February (2018) and Chadwick almost seemed surprised that he actually showed up. When he walked over to Denzel to introduce himself, the Training Day legend did the most classic thing ever.

Boseman said to Denzel, “I got to tell you something…You paid for me to go to school.”

Denzel jokingly responded, “Oh, so THAT’s why I’m here – you owe me money! … I came to collect!”

Watch Chadwick’s Interview Clip

Phylicia Rashad & Boseman Recall Their Fond Memories Together At Howard

According to what Chad revealed in his Rolling Stone interview, Phylicia Rashad was a mother-like figure to him, as his Howard professor. He recalled how she would take him to see her theatrical stage performances around town and would also tell him when he needed to eat a pork chop, or two:

Via RS: “She would do a play in D.C. and you’d go see it, and she’d drive you home and talk to you,” [Chadwick] says. “ ’How you eating? You look too skinny. You need a pork chop.’ We were just trying to aspire to her excellence.”

What caught her attention about Chadwick back in the day:

“Chad was this lanky young man with big eyes and an endearing smile and a very gentle way,” [Rashad] says. “What I saw in him was the sky was the limit. He never asked me to introduce him to anyone – that’s not his way. He was going to make it on his own merits.”

Like his famous mentor, Rashad, Chadwick became an acting teacher after graduating from Howard:

After graduation, Boseman moved to Bed-Stuy, in Brooklyn, where he fell in with New York’s hip-hop theater scene, writing and directing plays featuring rapping stars and beatboxing Greek choruses. “What Hamilton is doing now,” he says with pride, “we were doing 15 years ago.” To pay the bills, he also taught acting to kids at the Schomburg Center, a black research library in Harlem. (“He was so proud and fulfilled by that,” says Rashad. “When he talked about it, he became like sunshine – he loved it so much.”

Wow, it seems that both Phylicia Rashad and Denzel Washington are in what we, here at ILOSM, call the ‘return phases’ of their lives. That stage of life where they’ve accomplished great feats; earned wisdom, fame and fortune from it; and are now returning those same blessings to those coming after them. That is a beautiful thing and deserves to be celebrated, so we salute them for giving back, without asking for anything in return.