Why Black Panther star Michael B. Jordan needed therapy after playing Killmonger
- Actor tells Oprah Winfrey he didn’t take lightly ‘that kind of pain and rage’ his character – the villain in the black superhero film – represents
- He also didn’t have ‘an escape plan’ after playing Erik Killmonger, and saw a therapist to ‘unpack and talk’ when filming ended
It wasn’t easy being Killmonger.
And now Michael B. Jordan has opened up about the toll playing the villain in Black Panther took on his mental health.
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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 on 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.”