It's no exaggeration to say that Michael B. Jordan has made it to the top. His performances are often game-changing, whether as a boxing champion (in Creed), a Marvel superhero (in Fantastic Four), or a Marvel villain (in Black Panther).
But his latest film required a different kind of superpower: In Ryan Coogler's The Sinners, Jordan plays twin brothers Stack and Smoke who open a backwoods honkytonk in the segregated South.
When Coogler broached the idea of him playing two different characters, Jordan says his reaction was, “What am I doing?” I think it was a bit of a concern. A bit of nerves. But then there’s the same amount of excitement.”
And it gets really interesting when the vampires show up. The Sinners is a horror film, but it is also about history and the strength of family bonds.
To play characters from the Jim Crow South, Jordan drew a little from his family history. His mother's side of the family was originally from Hope, Arkansas, but many years ago moved to a segregated black neighborhood in Los Angeles called Oakwood (what is now Venice Beach).
We visited the First Baptist Church of Venice, which was the center of their community and one of the few remaining remnants. Jordan, who moved to New Jersey as a child, has never visited the place of worship, but says he still feels connected to his family's past. “I grew up in the church, you know, in a very spiritual family,” he said. “Churches were sort of safe havens—places of prayer and refuge… I mean, history, you can feel the heaviness when you walk into a place like that.”
I asked, “Did filming The Sinners make you think more about your family history?”
“It’s about time,” he replied. “It definitely connected me to my family's history, which I've always had a strong connection with, but it just reframed it a little bit.”
His own story is also remarkable: Dad is a US Marine Corps veteran; Mom is a former school counselor; and Michael Bakari Jordan was a child model and then a child star. He was still in high school when he was cast in the iconic TV series “The Wire,” and a few years later in another iconic show, “Friday Night Lights.”
He said, “I don’t think there’s anyone in my family who came out of this who looked at this as a potential career, you know? I think once I didn't go to college and decided to move to California and pursue acting full-time, there was no going back after that.”
His film breakthrough came in 2013 in director Ryan Coogler's drama Fruitvale Station.
FROM THE ARCHIVE: Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Coogler at “Fruitvale Station” (YouTube video)
Jordan worked with Coogler again a few years later when he stepped into the ring in 2015's Creed, a spin-off of the Rocky franchise—and, incidentally, the first Rocky film in which Sylvester Stallone didn't perform well.
Jordan said: “There are so many different levels to Creed. When I first transformed my body, you know, I learned a skill that I continue to do today, you know?”
“Are you still boxing?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s part of me at this point,” he said.
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And that character of Erik Killmonger, the bad guy from Black Panther who tried to overthrow the hero played by the late Chadwick Boseman, stuck with him too, but not in a good way. He says Eric was hard to shake. “Yeah, it kind of stuck with me for a while. And, you know, I went to therapy and talked about it. Finding a way to just relax, I think at that point I still knew I needed to unpack the character.”
“So you literally went to therapy to get over Eric a little?” I asked.
“Yes. And then I think it grew into a larger conversation and self-discovery of like, “Okay, you know, I think this is something that people need, you know?” Especially men. I think it's good for them to go and talk. This is something I am not at all ashamed of and very proud of. And it has definitely helped me become a good communicator and a well-rounded person, inside and out.”
For Jordan, now 38, part of his versatility is a strong relationship with his mom and dad. He even continued to live with his parents until he could afford to move out on his own. “It's true,” he said.
Why? “I mean because I love my parents. You know, I love them. Made for a lot of funny moments, a lot of great stories.”
Like? “You don't have much time!” he laughed. “I’m an owl, you know? Like, just stuff, you know? They go to bed early. Insert moment here.”
It should be noted that Jordan bought them their own house in the Los Angeles suburbs; he just lived there for a while.
“Who doesn’t want to buy your parents a house, you know, your mom’s house? It’s like it’s always been a childhood dream for my parents to retire and not have to work anymore,” he said. “And I can say that I did it. So yeah, it’s a bucket list.”
The Sinners is in direct Oscar conversation, both for the film and for Jordan's performance. It's a welcome reward for a man who lived his young life in the shadow of another famous Michael.
“You grew up playing sports, right?” I asked. “Was the name Michael Jordan a problem?”
“Time!” – he said. “I was teased so much that I almost changed my name.”
He was going to lean on his middle name: Bakari Jordan. “It definitely made me want to be competitive and do well – I wanted to be good at something, if only just to feel like I had my own identity,” he said.
I said, “But there might be another Michael Jordan who can make his mark.”
“That's right,” Jordan said. “It was part of the alchemy that made me who I am today.”
Let's put it this way: Michael Bakari Jordan may be on his way to immortality—Bakari means “noble promise,” after all.
I asked, “Do you feel like you accomplished this?”
“I feel like I'm going for it,” Jordan responded, “and I'll continue to do so, big time. We still have a lot to do, you know? We're just getting started.”
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Extended Interview – Michael B. Jordan (Video)
To watch the Sinners trailer, click on the video player below:
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The story was produced by John D'Amelio. Editor: Georgy Pozderek.
