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Michael B. Jordan says he went to therapy after playing Killmonger in 'Black Panther

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NEW YORK – It isn't easy being Killmonger.

Michael B. Jordan opened up about the toll playing the villain in "Black Panther" took on his mental health.

Jordan, 31, revealed he sought professional help after filming wrapped.

"I went to therapy, I started talking to people, starting unpacking a little bit,” he said.

Jordan discussed his process for getting into character Tuesday in conversation with Oprah Winfrey at the taping of her "SuperSoul Conversations" TV special.

“I was by myself, isolating myself," Jordan said when Winfrey asked where he went to "get all that nastiness" to play the Marvel super villain.

"I spent a lot of time alone," Jordan said. "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."

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Jordan said he wanted to do justice to the essence of what Killmonger represents in the movie.

"Of course it's an extreme, exaggerated version of the African diaspora from the African-American perspective, so to be able to take that kind of pain and rage and all those emotions that Erik kind of represents from being black and brown here in America … that was something I didn't take lightly,” Jordan said.

"I didn't have a process" for being Killmonger, Jordan added, "I just did whatever I felt I needed to do or whatever I felt was right in the moment every step of the way."

However, "I didn't have an escape plan, either," he confessed.

"When it was all over, I think just being in that kind of mind state … it caught up with me," Jordan said.

When filming finished, Jordan admitted that it was difficult to go back to being himself.

"It was a little tough for me at first," Jordan said about getting out of the mindset of his character.

"Readjusting to people caring about me, getting that love that I shut out," he continued. "I shut out love, I didn't want love. I wanted to be in this lonely place as long as I could."

He said that seeing a therapist "helped me out a lot," despite the criticism men face about receiving mental health treatment.

“Your mind is so powerful. Your mind will get your body past a threshold that it would have given up on way before,” Jordan said. “Honestly, therapy, just talking to somebody just helped me out a lot. As a man you get a lot of slack for it. … I don’t really subscribe to that. Everyone needs to unpack and talk.”
 
Heard that everybody who played the Joker in the batman films also got caught up in the character. Cant remember which actor it was but one of em said he ended up having to go to therapy after that shit

Dude who shot Ricky in Boyz n the Hood got caught up in that life after the movie too. I watched a whole thing about that shit on youtube. He ended up killing somebody and then got killed by a racist in prison
 
I mean if he wpuld have said the shit about having to sit still and let them put them scars on him every day I would believe him...

But pain was the last thing I saw when I watch his version of Killmonger. I saw teenage angst in an adult.
 
shit like this is intriguing to me. actors that do this are literally bending their minds and reshaping them into other personalities. its like rewiring your brain to think and process feelings differently. and shows that u can do so negatively or positively in your own life.
 
Man...these dudes be full of shit.
Trynna act like they mind bending or some shit.
Oh I didn't wash for a week to get into character.
Oh I slept with homeless people to understand their world.

Foh

Anyone say the slept with anyone's husband to understand cheating?

The niggas character wasn't that deep. Just like the million others.

And keath or Heath or whatever was a crackhead....of course he acted like the joker.

Good acting is what it is.
 
I think that was Nicholson for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. He had to film for hours at a psych ward and ended up actually checking himself into one.

It's easy for us to say because we're watching but we don't see the hours that goes into strength conditioning, make-up, remembering lines and reshooting the same scenes 40 different ways, doing PR and working hard to actually go from being who you are to someone you ain't for months at a time.

I remember when Christian Bale did The Machinist and said it was the toughest point in his career. He had to lose like 55 lbs and then regain all of that for Batman and go to the gym and push himself and he said he's not the most active person in the world. Nicholas Cage had some of his actually teeth pulled out for Birdy. Shit Shia LaBeouf still ain't recover and his career is still in limbo....
An to think.....a few chicks just sucked a dick an took it in the pooper and they got better careers
 
@TonyDubbz fam even for the CYOL games I remember taking entire nights and weekends listening to the artist's music and studying them just to be able to get the influence to make an album cover that was akin to their actual personalities. And to actually create the cover !? As much as I looove CYOL Maaaaaaaannnnnnn it would take a lot of time. Some artists are easier than others but artists like Jay-Z, Drake, Big Sean, ASAP Mob, 50 Cent, etc were some of the hardest to make covers for either because they're very secluded or complex. And some of the artists weren't very good or have albums I wanted to take time to listen to LOLOLOLOL. I had to listen to Big Sean, Drake, Nicki Minaj, etc in a time when I didn't really fuck with their music just for CYOL.


I can't compare to acting but I understand the same effort that goes into the art. Some people learn differently and comprehend things very differently as well. Especially when it's the arts.

yea man, I remember you mentioning that you actually went through the projects of the artist you had on your label. That shit helped your creation process a lot too when it came to those tournaments bruh. Those projects you were dropping were crazy and looked official asf!
 
Surprised he didn't just reach out to Denzel. I mean, did Denzel say he needed therapy after playing Lonzo?
 
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