How Accurate are the Characters?

Thurgood Marshall, portrayed by Chadwick Boseman

Thurgood Marshall was the first African-American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court after being appointed by President Johnson in 1967. Despite his race keeping him from opportunities to further his education at the University of Maryland Law, he was accepted into the law school at Howard University, a historically black college.

Chadwick Boseman, who portrays Marshall in the film, is no stranger to playing real-life figures. Boseman previously played, in various films, Floyd Little, Jackie Robinson and James Brown; he also stars as Marvel superhero the Black Panther in the 2018 film of the same name.

At a recent event at Compton High School in California featuring a screening of the film followed by a panel with its cast, Boseman shared with the 1,200 students in attendance what drew him to the role.

"First, I knew that this was not a story about Thurgood Marshall that people would know," he said. "You should know that he is a supreme court justice, but I knew people did not know this story — they did not know the ending of it."

He also described his experience playing Marshall, a lighter-skinned man, in this biopic, on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

"I don’t look like him in terms of complexion, and you know once I read [the script], I realized that, that really wasn't important," he said. "It’s, you know, each movie you do about a real person is a painting, and you choose certain things about a painting that you want to show. For this one, it’s the spirit of the man. He lives hard, he works hard. So I wanted to show this person who just was an interesting person."

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qbvLpbCwp5%2BZv6a8zqurnqpemLyue8uiqq2rX6m%2FtrGMrKuoqqliuqK%2B0qGYpaRdnby4ecCcmq6qkamybq3RnmScoJGnrqTAxKuqZmlgaYJ1hZRo