Michael B. Jordan, 39, won the Oscar for best actor for his performance in “Sinners.” He says one simple habit helped him get into character.
“I write a lot of journals for my characters, like backstories. So I try to go from, like, the earliest memory that I can conjure up and think of, and I write all the way up to the first page of the script,” Jordan said during a Q&A session at the Governors Ball, the official after-party of the Academy Awards.
“So it at least gives me an opportunity to kind of figure out like, you know, where they’re coming from, and that informs a lot of their decisions,” Jordan continued.
In the film, Jordan stars in a dual role as twin brothers Stack and Smoke, who return to their hometown in the Jim Crow-era South and face a supernatural evil.
To fully embody Stack and Smoke, the actor said he also “did a lot of chakra work” to unpack their childhood trauma and differentiate his portrayals of the two. In South Asian healing and spiritual traditions, chakras are seven points along the spine believed to be linked to physical, emotional, and spiritual functions.
“Smoke is a bit more, you know, he’s quiet, he’s a protector, and Stack is a little bit more light and buoyant, and a little bit of a slick talker and a troublemaker. So, I try to establish different perspectives,” he said.
Jordan said building out the brothers’ shared history helped him define their relationship and distinguish between the two characters on screen.
“How many times they would argue, how many times they would keep score on who’s right and who’s wrong. You know, all these things I kind of just started to build up so they could have a history between each other,” Jordan said. “And those are the things that hopefully came to light in between the lines, those nuances between the two.”
The Ryan Coogler film won four Academy Awards at the ceremony on Sunday, including best original screenplay and best cinematography.
Jordan attended the ceremony with his mom, dad, brother, and sister.
This isn’t the first time Jordan has spoken about his habit of journaling.
During a 2018 appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Jordan said he used the same method to get into character for his role as Erik Killmonger in “Black Panther.”
“For him, it was particularly dark, and it was a very sad journal. Not having his mom growing up, in and out of the system, foster care, foster homes, and whatnot,” Jordan told Stephen Colbert.
He added that much of what he wrote was not appropriate to share publicly, but the process helped him access the character’s mindset.
“But it was deep, man, and it allowed me to go to that place right before a scene. It allowed me to lock in,” Jordan added.