Ein Black Panther mit Oscar-Chancen
The woman thought she was being sly, but all the way across the restaurant in Beverly Hills, California, Michael B. Jordan had her figured out.
“There’s this Spidey sense I have now,” Mr. Jordan said, referring to Spider-Man, who has an instinct for danger.
For Mr. Jordan, that sense is activated whenever a fan is secretly trying to take his picture. The woman was holding her iPhone at the sort of angle that the 31-year- old Mr. Jordan has come to recognize as a camera trained on him.
“I’ve just got to get comfortable with that being my life now,” he said. “After you do a Marvel film, things change.”
Mr. Jordan played Marvel’s Human Torch in 2015’s “Fantastic Four” reboot, and he was the foe Erik Killmonger in this year’s “Black Panther,” making him one of the most famous young men in Hollywood. Still, don’t mistake his success for contentment. “I’m starting to learn as time goes on and I get the things I’ve worked so hard for, there’s always going to be, ‘What’s the next thing?’ ” he said.
The latest for Mr. Jordan is the boxing drama “Creed II,” a sequel to his 2015 hit. As Adonis Creed, Mr. Jordan toggles between muscular bravado and a wounded, boyish vulnerability.
Though it was filmed in Philadelphia like the first “Creed,” the difference in how the city reacted to him was palpable. “He had jumped to being a superstar, a megastar,” said Steven Caple Jr., who directed the sequel. “When we would go out, you could see that he was still getting used to the attention.”
Wherever Adonis goes in “Creed II,” he is greeted as a hero, yet he is restless.
“I related to that feeling as an actor: I thought once I got enough money to buy a house and a car that I would be happy,” Mr. Jordan said. “But why do I still feel unsatisfied? Why am I so hungry?”
Mr. Jordan first moved to Los Angeles as a teenage actor.
Though he was coming off a turn on “The Wire” and “All My Children,” every major agency passed on representing him.
Mr. Jordan found work in television on “Friday Night Lights” and in a few movies, but leading-man parts eluded him. “I watched him in supporting roles in ‘Chronicle’ and ‘Red Tails,’ and it was like, ‘ Yo, that dude is a movie star,’ ” the director Ryan Coogler said. “It felt like those movies should be about him.”
With Mr. Coogler, who picked Mr. Jordan to star in his 2013 debut “Fruitvale Station” and also directed him in the first “Creed” and “Black Panther,” a partnership was forged that fast-tracked both men’s careers. Over the three films, Mr. Jordan came into his own as a heartthrob.
Now, Mr. Jordan has the capital to do what he wants: He just finished shooting the drama “Just Mercy,” a star turn supported by the Oscar winners Brie Larson and Jamie Foxx, and hopes to soon mount a remake of “The Thomas Crown Affair.” But there is still a nagging sense that all this success could go away.
“I come from north New Jersey, where nothing’s promised,” Mr. Jordan said. The representatives who now labor on his behalf work at one of the agencies that once passed on him, a fact that makes Mr. Jordan chuckle.
No superhero film has been nomi- nated for the Academy Awards best picture before, but “Black Panther” will prove hard to ignore. Killmonger’s fury is so righteous that many audience members couldn’t help but take his side. It’s a testament, too, to Mr. Jordan’s ferocious performance, which may land him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.
Mr. Jordan and Mr. Coogler had crafted an enemy so compelling that after “Black Panther” was released, t he hashtag #K i l l mongerWasRight began to trend on Twitter. The debate continues. “There’s some guys who are like, ‘Team Killmonger, man!’ ” Mr. Jordan said. “And a lot of women are like, ‘Boy, you made me mad!’ ”
Mr. Jordan doesn’t mind the fan feedback. He even had sympathy for the woman who was trying to take his photograph from across the restaurant.
He beckoned the woman and her group over and offered to take selfies.
“Mike’s the type that wants to interact with fans,” Mr. Caple said, “but how do you balance that when you can be promptly surrounded and crowded to the point where you can’t even walk down the street?”
Mr. Jordan stretched out one long arm, wielding the iPhone himself. “I promise this is going to be good,” he told the women. “But that means you’ve got to delete the other ones you took of me in the back, is that cool?”
Perhaps that was the attitude that let him have some control over a level of fame that everyone wants in on. Michael B. Jordan doesn’t mind posing for your picture, as long as he’s the one who gets to take it.