Baller Alert Entertainment & Lifestyle
Costume designer Ruth Carter is reflecting on a few moments she shared with Actor Chadwick Boseman while preparing for the history-making and 2019 Oscar award-winning film, Black Panther, and 2017’s Marshall.
“I started to work on Marshall with Chadwick and didn’t even think about Black Panther,” Carter told PEOPLE, adding that she wanted to focus on the job at hand by getting Boseman prepared to take on the role of Thurgood Marshall. “I went through the fitting process with Chad — he had a lot of changes. Thurgood Marshall was very dapper in his young days, so we dressed him really dapper. He was a lot of fun. But I understood from our fitting that he really did want to come together on this, and understand the period, understand what his role was,” she said.
Carter said that she played a lot of YouTube videos so that the actors could get a sense of the mid-century clothing during that period so that it helped them prepare mentally and physically for their roles in the film.
“He enjoyed it. He had done James Brown prior to this, so he loved to do that the sex machine move with his feet,” she said. “Though, he felt a little strange, because he felt like he didn’t look like Thurgood Marshall. We were doing our interpretation of the great Thurgood Marshall.”
Carter later found out that she had landed the costume designer gig for Black Panther while still shooting for Marshall, but she did not want to tell Boseman right away.
“I wanted to just keep it quiet, and then, towards the end of the shooting, I finally revealed my secret,” Carter said, as she recalled discovering that her secret was not so much of a secret. “And Chad said, ‘I already knew.’ He said it was that little smirky smile on his face. He said, ‘You killed it, Ruth, you killed it.’ So, I felt really good that I was able to hold it. But he was also able to hold the secret too.”
After their time on Marshall, Carter and Boseman began working together on ‘Black Panther,’ which not only made history but forever immortalized the actor as a superhero.
Carter remembered the time Bosman had his first fitting for the Black Panther suit:
“I had the pants suit in my office, and it was dressed on a mannequin, and I thought, this thing doesn’t look all that great, partly because the mannequin was weird.” She said, “I called Chadwick in, and I asked him to put the suit on — we needed to see if there were any problems or anything — and when he put on the suit and the helmet went on, it was like magic. I could see the power of these superheroes. I could see how they have an effect on people just because it’s like they are a superhero.”
Over time, Carter and Boseman worked together to create the perfect iconic costume that would inspire everyone.
“I think that relationship … there was so much trust because we’d worked on Marshall together. There was so much trust when we started Black Panther,” she said. “It was an incredible experience because he didn’t doubt anything. He always greeted me with a smile, a hug, and cooperation.”
One of the traits that Carter admired most about Boseman was his sense of community, which they share.
As the interview continued, Carter discussed her involvement with the Boys and Girls Club of America. She recently partnered with the organization and with companies like Toyota and Coca-Cola to create a Workforce Readiness initiative for underrepresented kids. The initiative’s goal is to help guide and prepare them for the workplace by giving them real-life experiences and skills needed to achieve their career goals regardless of their circumstances.
She said the organization was “an internal part” of her adolescent life, and she credits them for helping her to inspire her love for design.
“As a young woman growing up, I started to understand how some of the skills that I was learning there were going to actually help me when I decided to go to college or as I learned the different activities — there were lessons behind the lessons,” She said.” the lessons that you learn are not only lessons of swimming or sewing, they’re also lessons of life. I think that’s what supported me as a young person growing up within the Boys & Girls Club and also supported my family and my mother.”
“I was raised in a single-parent household. My mom encouraged me to stay connected to the Boys & Girls Club, which was a huge support to her as a single mother for her children to grow and be enriched,” she added.
“I was always told, don’t worry about the ribbon. Don’t worry about the big prize … Only know in your mind that you can do this. This was my speech long ago when I was inducted into the Boys & Girls alumni, and that is something that I had carried throughout my life.” She adds, “If you’re not focused on ‘oh my God, this is Marvel. How did I get here?’ You just have to attack it … You just take it one step at a time,” she said.
