Michael B. Jordan Got Therapy After Black Panther

'Everyone needs to unpack and talk,' actor tells Oprah Winfrey
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 6, 2019 12:32 PM CST
Michael B. Jordan Sought Therapy After Black Panther
Michael B. Jordan, left, and Chadwick Boseman in a scene from "Black Panther."   (Matt Kennedy/Marvel Studios-Disney via AP)

Michael B. Jordan received high praise for his role as Black Panther's supervillain, but he wasn't feeling so hot after filming wrapped. "Therapy, just talking to somebody just helped me out a lot," the 31-year-old actor tells Oprah Winfrey in a SuperSoul Conversations interview to air Feb. 16 on OWN. Jordan says he dug into "pain and rage and all those emotions … from being black and brown here in America" to prepare for the role of Erik Killmonger, per USA Today. Black Panther is "an extreme, exaggerated version of the African diaspora from the African-American perspective," he adds. "That was something I didn't take lightly."

"I shut out love" while preparing for the role, believing Killmonger would've lived an isolated childhood, but going from that mindset back to normal life was hard, Jordan says: "I wanted to be in this lonely place as long as I could." Enter therapy: "As a man you get a lot of slack for [going to therapy]" but "everyone needs to unpack and talk." At least he'll be better prepared for round two. On the red carpet of last month's Screen Actors Guild Awards, cast member Angela Bassett hinted the entire Black Panther ensemble would be returning for a rumored sequel. "Just go ahead and say it, yes. Everyone will be there," her husband, Courtney B. Vance, chimed in, per Polygon. "Even Michael B." (The actor was among the first to adopt inclusion riders.)

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