After portraying the antagonist in 2018’s Black Panther, Michael B. Jordan discusses why he sought counseling. The actor discussed the effects of giving his all to his portrayal of Erik Killmonger in the Ryan Coogler-directed Marvel movie in a recent appearance on CBS’s “Sunday Morning.”
“After the movie, it kind of stuck with me for a bit,” he said. “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. You know, there’s no blueprint to this.”
He added, “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.”
He said that he spent a lot of time “isolated” and “didn’t really speak” to his family to stay focused while training for the part.
“Erik didn’t really know a lot of love. I think Erik didn’t experience that,” Jordan said. “He had a lot of betrayal, a lot of failed systems around him that shaped him and his anger and his frustration. And looking at history and how it would seem to always repeat itself, and how was he going to break that cycle?”
The thrice-Oscar-winning film Black Panther centers on T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), the heir to the advanced but secret kingdom of Wakanda, who must take the initiative to guide his people into a new future and face a foe from his nation’s history.
