Michael B. Jordan Interview: Creed 2

Michael B. Jordan has appeared in multiple television shows and movies such as The Wire and Fruitvale Station. But starring in 2015’s Creed as the titular lead and then playing Erik Killmonger in Black Panther has made him a household name. Jordan’s latest film is Creed II, which shows Adonis Creed preparing to fight the son of Ivan Drago, the boxer who killed his father in the ring 33 years ago.

Screen Rant: First of all, I love this franchise! I love the Rocky franchise, but I think I love the Creed franchise just a little bit more, personally.

Michael B. Jordan: Aw man…

Screen Rant: A big subplot of this film is Adonis’ growing family, how does that change the character this time around?

Michael B. Jordan: I think that it just gives him more stakes, higher stakes. I feel like Adonis only had to think about himself for a long time, you know, worried about getting him right. You know? His healing process now, having more of a “We” mentality with his family, with his fiancé, with his daughter now. I think the stakes just raised so much more.

Screen Rant: Some of Adonis’ inner struggles have to do with the passing and loss of his father. Do you think that mentality that he needs to defeat Ivan in order to kind of overcome that and get a sense of…mental closure?

Michael B. Jordan: Ahhh. I think so. I think that’s one of the reasons that he gets in the ring with Viktor the first time around… Yeah. He got into it for all the wrong reasons, which is why it ends the way it does…I feel like that once he has the right reason for being inside, he understands that and he’s done a little more soul searching and figured out what’s up, then he’s able to kinda jump into the ring and do what he has to do.

Screen Rant: Steven’s taking over the directorial reigns from Ryan [Coogler] on this one. How does his vision align with Ryan’s and what does he bring to the production process?

Michael B. Jordan: I think everybody’s vision kind of lines up. I think everybody wants to make a great movie, a 360 film with fleshed out characters and that pays attention to all the thematics; The family, the legacy, what are you fighting for, that theme is really really important. I feel like Steven brings a very gritty, indie…but yet he loves sound, he loves the colors, you know, he comes from a very personal place of storytelling. All of his films are very personal. So, it has to be something that connects with him deep inside for him to get behind it, so this is definitely something that he connected with. And you can definitely tell on screen.

Screen Rant: Yeah, every time Adonis got hit, I felt like I was getting hit. It was crazy the way that worked. Obviously, Ryan [Coogler] is the producer, mastermind behind the Creed franchise. Have you discussed with him if you guys are going to do more serialized storytelling like the original Rocky or if it’s going to be more of trilogy with a beginning, middle, and end?

Michael B. Jordan: Oh! I’ve never thought about that.

Screen Rant: Really!?

Michael B. Jordan: That’s an interesting question. I’ve never thought about that…

Screen Rant: And also, with your style that you had for Adonis. Did you base that off of anybody past or present? The boxing style…

Michael B. Jordan: Yeah, we looked at Charles “Sweetpea” Whitaker. Yeah, he was someone that I was looking at. Timothy Bradley was another guy, character that we were thinking about when we did the first Creed. Sweetpea, Tim Bradley… I think those two. It was a mixture of those two. And of course his pops. Of course Apollo. Those were the three that we looked at.