[ Cheers and applause ]

First of all, I mean...

Why did you—why are you doing this dude?

You know you're gonna lose this eventually, right? You can't...

Now you gotta maintain this.

You gotta take your shirt off everywhere now.

Yeah, you gotta remember when, you know?

Remember when.

Yeah, you gotta remember when.

That's true.

Yeah, it's a good time to be you right now.

In the article, there's a great thing.

They talked about you studying acting.

You got to study in... at Oxford in London?

Right, right, yeah.

I did an exchange while I was at Howard over summer.

A group of us from Howard did it.

So Phylicia Rashad actually was --

She basically taught a class once a week

while we were at Howard,

and then she wanted us to do this exchange,

and so she got—and I didn't have money to pay for this—

so she got a few of her friends together, and you know,

they paid for us to go.

- That's awesome. - Yeah.

And then you found out who one of her friends was.

Yeah, I didn't know at first.

When I came back --

and I basically have been holding this secret

my whole career.

When I came back, I got a beneficiary letter

and it said, "Denzel Washington paid for you."

And I was like...

I was like, "What?" Exactly.

That's what I did.

How cool is that?

[ Applause ]

-Yeah. So... -Awesome!

So, you know, I never wanted to, like, ever say that

until I met him.

And, you know, I was doing that "Rolling Stone" interview,

and he asked me about it.

And I was like,

"You know, I think I can say it now."

I think I can -- I've made it -- I've made it to the point

where he's not going to think

I'm trying to get something from him by saying it.

Yeah.

The weird thing that happened is, I did the interview,

and just before the movie came out,

we did the New York premiere.

He came and I met him before the article came out.

So I actually, you know,

lived up to what I originally wanted to do.

It was amazing.

And what did you say to him?

He was like, "I haven't met you yet."

And I said, "Yeah, I gotta tell you something,

you know, you paid for me to go to school."

And he said, "Oh, so that's why I'm here.

You owe me money!"

[ Laughter and applause ]

"I came to collect."

That's great. That's great, man.

Oh, man. He's amazing.

Well, the movie is a phenomenon.

I mean, obviously it's based -- it's a Marvel movie.

It's a comic-book movie, but it's bigger than that.

I mean, what do you think people

are taking politically from this?

Uh... I mean, it's a lot of different things.

Yeah.

You know, you always get what you bring to a viewing.

Part of it was -- what has been very interesting is --

you know, I would say the strength

of the women in this movie,

especially at this particular time, while the "Me Too," "Time's Up"

movement is happening.

This adds another layer to that conversation,

a very, very good layer to the conversation.

So I think people have really, really responded

to that part of Wakanda.

I think the relationship between Killmonger and T'Challa,

which is basically, you know,

an African-American trying to connect to his roots.

And that conversation is one that I think is happening

on a platform that you wouldn't normally see happen.

You know, those are conversations

that happen behind closed doors.

So you see Africans viewing African-Americans

in a different way, and African-Americans

viewing themselves and Africa in a different way.

And everyone else is privy to that conversation.

And so I think that is a very, very healthy thing for people

to become more specific about their identity

and encouraging (encourage) it.

In most cases, you see people trying to water down things

when you talk about diversity... -Yeah.

...as opposed to embracing what they actually are.

So I think that has been,

you know, very refreshing and fulfilling.

Isn't that great? That's great.

-Yeah. -That's so cool.

I want to show everyone a clip.

Here's Chadwick Boseman and Letitia Wright.

Man, oh, man, she is fantastic.

-She's great. -Oh, yeah.

Letitia Wright in "Black Panther," in theaters now.

Check this out.

♪♪♪♪

Whoo! Let's go!

♪♪♪♪

Hey, look at your suit!

You've been taking bullets,

charging it up with kinetic energy.

Pull around the truck.

Where'd he go?!

♪♪♪♪

That's how you do it right there.