Chadwick Boseman broke down while making final movie 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'

Chadwick Boseman broke down in tears while filming a scene in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, his final appearance on screen.

Boseman was battling cancer while making the movie, an adaptation of the 1982 play set in a Chicago music studio in the 1920s, penned by August Wilson.

Speaking in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Tony award-winning director George C. Wolfe, said that Boseman became overwhelmed during a scene between his character, the trumpeter Levee, and Colman Domingo's character Cutler.

Watch: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom trailer

During the scene, Levee questions and challenges Cutler's faith.

“We were doing it in a very casual way, and I assumed that when Levee got to the big speech that Chadwick was going to stop. But he didn’t stop. He kept going, and Levee took over - it was raw and explosive,” said Wolfe.

Read more: Disney+ pays tribute to Chadwick Boseman's birthday with new Black Panther credits

“Afterwards, Chadwick just started to sob, and Colman hugged him, and then Chadwick’s girlfriend basically picked him up.”

Chadwick was in a relationship with Taylor Simone Ledward, who he married in a low-key ceremony after they'd got engaged in October, 2019.

The Black Panther star had been secretly battling colon cancer since 2016, and filmed Ma Rainey in the summer of 2019.

He died on 28 August, 2020. He was just 43.

The movie, which also stars Viola Davis, Glynn Turman, Michael Potts, Taylour Paige, Dusan Brown, Jonny Coyne and Jeremy Shamos, has been hailed by critics.

Read more: Marvel to take its time on Black Panther sequel

“Boseman, evincing the same integrity he clung to his entire career, refuses to soft-pedal the destination. He imparts to this seething, shattered man the gift of a broken soul, riven by anger and trauma, and makes him all the more human for it. His final moments of screen time are among his darkest, and also his finest,” wrote the Los Angeles Times.

The movie will be released on Netflix on 18 December.

Watch: Boseman remembered by Marvel stars