Marvel Studios
Sinners star Michael B. Jordan recently opened up about the mental toll that playing Erik Killmonger in 2018’s Black Panther took on him, revealing that it pushed him to seek out therapy.
Released in 2018, Black Panther is one of the most iconic films in the history of the MCU, as it not only grossed over $1 billion at the box office but became the first — and, so far, only — Marvel Studios project to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
While the result suggests that the juice was certainly worth the squeeze, it clearly took its toll on Michael B. Jordan, who sought out therapy in the aftermath.
Michael B. Jordan says that he went into therapy after playing the villain Erik Killmonger in 2018’s Black Panther
“After the movie, it kind of stuck with me for a bit. Went to therapy, talked about it, found a way to kind of just decompress. And I think at that point, I was still learning that I needed to decompress from a character,” MBJ told CBS Sunday Morning.
“Acting is a solo journey a lot of times. Auditioning by yourself, practicing by yourself. There’s a lot of preparation and the experience and the journey. So learning as I went, I [realized] that, ‘Oh man, I still got a little something on me I need to get off.’” You know, talking is really important.”
Part of the reason that playing Killmonger might have stuck with Jordan to such an extent is that he’s one of the most “Well, maybe he’s right” villains in the history of comic book movies.
Just last month, Black Panther director Ryan Coogler detailed what he had planned for the Black Panther sequel prior to Chadwick Boseman’s death, revealing that he had written at 180-page draft that the Oscar-nominated actor was unfortunately “too sick to read.”
“The big thing with the script was a thing called the Ritual of 8 where a prince is 8 years old, he must spend 8 days in the bush with his father. The rule is for those 8 days the prince can ask the father any question and the father must answer,” Coolger explained on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
“In the course of those 8 days, Namor launches an attack… [T’Challa] had to deal with someone who’s insanely dangerous but because of this ritual, his son had to be joined at his hip the whole time or else they’d violate this ritual that had never been broken. It was insane,” he continued.
“Chadwick was going to kill it, but life goes as it goes… I loved that script. I put so much into that version of the movie because I felt like I had gotten to know Chadwick as a performer. I threw a lot at him in the first ‘Panther’ but I realized I was just scratching the surface. It was a 180-page draft.”
Jordan is ramping up his Oscars campaign as he stumps for a Best Actor nomination for his work in the massive hit Sinners, which is expected to be nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and numerous other awards at this year’s Oscars ceremony.