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MICHAEL B. JORDAN, NOW A HOLLYWOOD HEAVYWEIGHT
The actor says with his role in The Black Panther, he felt like being a representation of African diaspora
Michael B. Jordan’s path to this moment was condensed and edited, it might look, like a training montage. Images of Jordan cutting his teeth on the Baltimore streets of The Wire (2002) and the Texas football fields of Friday Night Lights (2009-11), followed by hints of a soaring talent (Red Tails, and Chronicle; 2012), shattering breakthroughs (Fruitvale Station, 2013) and setbacks (Fantastic Four, 2015) before reaching, with a pair of haymakers (Creed, 2015; Black Panther, 2018), heavyweight status.
Creed II finds Jordan’s character, Adonis Creed — like the actor himself — adjusting to his newfound prominence: reaching the pinnacle of his profession while still having to fight for what he believes in. Jordan went door-to-door in Georgia urging people to vote in the midterm elections in the US.
“You’ve been doing one thing for 20 years. Constantly working at it, trying to grow and become successful, or whatever your version of success is. And then you have a moment in time where everything seems to be coming together at the same time. Everything seems to be happening. But you live in a society, in a world that’s kind of going to s---,” says Jordan. “So to be able to use one to help the other, is something. To try to find your voice.”
It’s an answer with shades of Jordan’s typical performance: earnest, thoughtful, tinged with pain. “Honestly, there’s a lot going on right now and I’m trying to find my place in all of it, professionally and personally,” he says.
A big part of Jordan’s quest was Black Panther, in which he played Erik Killmonger. The part is ostensibly a villain, but in Jordan’s hands, Killmonger — a wounded, fatherless warrior bent on reparations through violence — has a depth uncommon if not outright alien to comicbook films. “He was one of the few African-American characters and he was carrying the weight of that cultural representation,” says the film’s director Ryan Coogler. “Mike brings a lot of the empathy with him, as a person and as a performer. That’s one of the things that makes him special. Almost as soon as you see him, you empathize with him.”
“Playing Killmonger, that feeling of being a representation of the African diaspora, I felt a certain responsibility to get it right. That was a very maturing process for me,” Jordan says. “I had to play that role.”