When I met up with Michael B. Jordan at the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank before a late-night event on the lot, he seemed exhausted — and understandably so. The always-in-demand actor, one of Hollywood's hottest talents, was just back from Europe, where he spent a year directing, acting and producing a new version of the heist thriller The Thomas Crown Affair.
For much of our interview, he has his eyes closed. But when asked if he's tired, he protests, "Me? Nah, I'm full of energy."
He'll need that energy as he moves through awards season, promoting Sinners. His performance in the horror film has made him a Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama contender at the Golden Globes this weekend and has sparked early Oscar buzz.
In the film, he plays twins Smoke and Stack. They are identical twins, World War I veterans and Chicago mob enforcers who own a juke joint in the Jim Crow South. And they confront a town filled with vampires.
"Mike is giving one of the most incredible performances I've ever seen," says Ryan Coogler, who wrote, directed and produced Sinners. "He's really playing two roles, he's got to play Smoke, and he's got to play Stack. And spoiler alert: he plays vampire Stack, too."
At times, the SmokeStack twins appear onscreen together — and in one key scene, they even fight each other.
"Mike did just an incredible amount of work developing a physical language for who each twin is," says Coogler. "He's so good in this movie that we have scenes where we're cutting between close-ups of the twins and the audience still knows which one is which."
Jordan's co-star Wunmi Mosaku praises his enthusiasm, focus and honesty.
"Even from my back, I really could tell if he was Smoke or if he was Stack," she says. "His character was so detailed."
Jordan explains how he differentiated the two.
"I wore a half-size too-small shoe for Stack because I wanted him to feel a bit uneasy," he says. "And Smoke wore a half-size too big, 'cause I wanted him to feel a bit planted and grounded and not able to move too fast."
Jordan voiced the characters differently, too.
"Smoke's in the lower octave, he doesn't talk too much. He smokes a lot of cigarettes, so his voice is a bit tired and raspy," says Jordan. "Stack, on the other hand, is a little bit more buoyant, more whimsical."
It started with a doctor's appointment
The 38-year-old actor was born in Southern California, named not after the basketball icon but rather, his father, Michael A. Jordan.
"My middle name is Bakari," he says. "It means 'of noble promise.'"
Jordan grew up in Newark, N.J., and credits his mother for getting him started in show business in his pre-teens.
"I went in for a doctor's appointment, the receptionist had two little boys around my age [who were] going to New York for modeling work... [She] told my mom, 'You should take your son to one of these auditions.'"
His mom did just that, and right away he started getting parts in TV commercials and shows like The Sopranos, Cosby, and All My Children. For that soap opera, he replaced actor Chadwick Boseman — with whom he would later perform in Black Panther.
In 2013, Jordan got his big movie break in Coogler's first feature, Fruitvale Station. In the biographical drama, Jordan played Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old unarmed man shot and killed by transit police in Oakland in 2009.
"Fruitvale was my first time playing a real person," Jordan says. "I had to get to know Oscar Grant through the people that loved him the most: his daughters, the mother of his child, his mom, his best friends. Being able to really roll my sleeves up and dive into his world was a big challenge."
Then Coogler cast Jordan in his Black Panther films. In a widely celebrated performance, Jordan plays the villain Erik Killmonger, who chooses to die rather than be imprisoned.
"Just bury me in the ocean with my ancestors that jumped from the ships," Killmonger says. "They knew death was better than bondage."
Jordan calls Killmonger an "interesting and layered antagonist" who "lived a very isolated, lonely existence. You understand his perspective behind the quote-unquote madness."
A partnership with 'space to breathe'
Jordan and Coogler also teamed up for their series of Creed films in the Rocky saga. Jordan plays the son of fighter Apollo Creed.
"What can I say about working with Coog?" says Jordan. "He's a very, very detailed, smart director. Empathetic. He's unapologetically who he is. Gives actors the space to breathe and to take creative swings in a safe space."
Coogler says they've enjoyed a special friendship and collaboration on five films as director and actor. They also produced Creed III, Jordan's directorial debut.
Coogler says he always knew his friend was going to direct and produce.
"When I first met him, he was talking about how you just option a book. This was when he was in his mid-20s, and he was already thinking like that. I saw this dude was gonna have a long career."
Actor Delroy Lindo, who co-stars in Sinners, says he admires how Jordan is navigating Hollywood by acting, directing and producing.
"Mike and certain actors of his generation are establishing a way of working on their own terms. And I'm knocking wood because I hope and I pray that maintains and sustains. It's a different model."
Michael B. Jordan was once named People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive. Now, he's really owning his leading man role, saying simply:
"Heavy is the crown when you're in that position, I guess."
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