The star of the Black Panther franchise has admitted he was starstruck after meeting Rihanna for the first time and “folded like fresh laundry”.
Winston Duke, who plays Jabari tribe leader M’Baku in the Marvel blockbuster, said he had had “a lot of plans” about how he would approach the singer ahead of their introduction in 2019.
Rihanna recently released a new single Lift Me Up, recorded for the upcoming film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which is due for release on November 11.
The song was her first musical release in six years, since her last studio album Anti in 2016.
“Oh, I folded like fresh laundry”
–@Winston_Duke didn’t know how to react when he met @rihanna and learned that she already knew him. #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/K5hoTjWUYF
— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) November 1, 2022
Speaking on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Duke said: “I got to meet Rihanna in 2019. I never got starstruck and that was the night.
“I had a lot of plans in my head for years because we’re both from the Caribbean; I’m from Trinidad and she’s from Barbados.
“I had all these ideas, I was like ‘I’m gonna chat her up on carnival, crop over and talk about art’…(I thought ) we’ve got this.
“So I saw her and her friend introduced (us) and… I said ‘I’m Winston Duke’ and she said ‘I’m aware of who you are’.”
He continued: “She looked at me and she said ‘I know exactly who you are’… I folded like fresh laundry my friend.
“I was done… I said ‘errr, where did you come from?’ and she said ‘my house’.”
The story drew laughter from the audience and Fallon himself.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever also stars Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett and Danai Gurira.