While classic TV fans remember actress Phylicia Rashad as The Cosby Show's Clair Huxtable, for Chadwick Boseman, she was his teacher and mentor. "She would do a play in D.C. and you'd go see it, and she'd drive you home and talk to you," Boseman told Rolling Stone. "'How you eating? You look too skinny. You need a pork chop.'" And, as Rashad recalled, he was determined to succeed on his terms.
"Chad was this lanky young man with big eyes and an endearing smile and a very gentle way," Rashad told Rolling Stone. "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." Yet, while Rashad didn't help Boseman get his foot in the door, she did help the promising actor attend the University of Oxford's prestigious summer theater program.
While Boseman and and his classmates got accepted, none of them had the funds necessary to attend. That's when Rashad stepped in to help. "She pushed for us," Boseman noted. "She essentially got some celebrity friends to pay for us to go." While Boseman initially refused to reveal who paid his way, he later told The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that actor Denzel Washington was his generous benefactor. Both Rashad and Washington helped Boseman make an immeasurable impact during his years here on earth.
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