Black Panther star Winston Duke ‘folded like laundry’ upon meeting Rihanna

‘I never get starstruck and that was the night,’ said Duke

Black Panther star Winston Duke said he “folded like laundry” when he met Rihanna.

Duke, who plays plays Jabari tribe leader M’Baku in the film, said he had “a lot of plans” for how their meeting would happen but things didn’t go as expected.

Rihanna released her first song in six years as part of the forthcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack, titled “Lift Me Up”.

“I got to meet Rihanna in 2019… I have to say I never get starstruck and that was the night,” said Duke in an interview on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

“I had a lot of, like, plans in my head for years because we’re both Caribbean – I’m from Trinidad and she’s from Barbados. I had all these ideas, I’m like ‘I’m gonna chat her up on Carnival, crop over, talk about art’,” he continued.

After introducing himself to the singer, he said she looked at him and replied: “I’m aware of who you are… I know exactly who you are”.

“I folded like fresh laundry, my friend, I was done” he told Fallon.

After stumbling over his words, Duke said he nervously asked Rihanna “where do you come from?”, to which she replied, “My house.”

Duke, who also starred in Jordan Peele’s Us, returns to his role as M’Baku for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

For the film, Rihanna released “Lift Me Up” as a tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman, who died aged 43 from colon cancer in 2020.

The highly-anticipated Black Panther sequel is a “powerful” and “beautiful” tribute to Boseman, early critical reviews have said.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be in cinemas on 11 November.