Movies - TV
Playing Black Panther's Killmonger Drove Michael B. Jordan Into Therapy
By TYLER LLEWYN TAING
Michael B. Jordan's Erik "Killmonger" Stevens in 2018's "Black Panther" still reigns as one of the most memorable antagonists in the franchise's history. While there are much darker and more destructive villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Killmonger stood apart thanks to his pure rage and charisma and required the actor to go to a dark place psychologically.
On Oprah Winfrey’s “SuperSoul Conversations,” Jordan said, "I went to therapy, I started talking to people, starting unpacking a little bit. [...] I was by myself, isolating myself. [...] I spent a lot of time alone. I figured Erik [Killmonger], his childhood growing up was pretty lonely. He didn't have a lot of people he could talk to about this place called Wakanda that didn't exist."
To properly understand Killmonger's loneliness, Jordan tried shutting himself off from others in his personal life. Though Jordan doesn't often venture into method acting, he openly admitted it "helped [him] out a lot" to seek therapy after embodying Killmonger, saying, "As a man you get a lot of slack for it. [...] I don't really subscribe to that. Everyone needs to unpack and talk."