Hunter Clowdus is known for playing JJ in the hit series All American on The CW. But before he was dominating on the football field, JJ was also a batboy in the hit movie 42, which stars the late Chadwick Boseman. PopCulture.com recently caught up with Clowdus who detailed his experience working with Boseman as they shared a scene together in 42.
“Something that stuck out about him to me so much was, he was truly an artist, Clowdus exclusively told PopCulture. “When I would see him in between scenes, he never got out of the headspace that he needed to be in, to play Jackie Robinson. And he was always listening to music and 42 was a period piece and he was always listening to music that would keep him in that same energy space.
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“So it was the first time I’d been around an actor, an artist of that caliber who knew that everything he took in and everything he saw would be reflected in his work. I’d never seen someone take so much pride and care and attention to detail the way he did. To this day I can speak to it at great length, just because it did have that much of an impact on me. So yeah, that’s one of the coolest parts of my entire career thus far, was being around someone, a human being that carried that energy. It was just really special.”
42 told the story about Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Boseman’s portrayal of Robinson would lead him to bigger roles, including James Brown in Get on Up, Thurgood Marshall in Marshall and Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Boseman died of colon cancer in August 2020. Following his death, Boseman was posthumously nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Levee Green in the film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Clowdus went on to appear in various TV shows and movies before landing the role of JJ in All American in 2018. He was a recurring character before being promoted to series regular before the fourth season. Clowdus is one of the many reasons the All American has been a huge success for The CW, and it has led to the network producing a spinoff series called All American: Homecoming.
