Michael B. Jordan fancies himself quite the traveller. Which is just as well, considering the places his buzz-worthy film Fruitvale Station has taken him. From Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize, to Cannes Film Festival, where it won Best First Film in the coveted Un Certain Regard segment, and a gala screening on the fourth night of the Dubai International Film Festival on Monday, the journey, Jordan says, has been one of immense pride.
Not just because of the issues the film has raised, based on the true story of the killing of Oscar Grant by a police officer in 2009, but also because this is his first lead in a feature film. The near-universal praise he’s received for his sensitive portrayal of Grant hasn’t hurt either.
“It’s just been amazing,” says the 26-year-old. “There’s not an abundance of roles for a young African-American actor, besides the stereotypical ones. I have been fortunate to do roles that didn’t put me in a box and that have been memorable enough to stand the test of time and opened up doors for me.”
The more geeky ones will remember him from last year’s sleeper hit Chronicle, in which he plays one of three high schoolers who suddenly discover they have super powers. But Jordan is best known for his work on TV, with shows such as Parenthood, Friday Night Lights and the crime drama The Wire.
He says luck has played a big role in the way his career has shaped up, and good timing. Also a bit of karma.
“The synchronicity of it all with everything falling in place, I just feel blessed,” he says. “I mean I didn’t even want to be an actor, it just sort of fell into my lap. Then going from small success to small success from there, it’s just been great. Especially at this time in Hollywood.”
The time Jordan refers to is the so-called ‘year of black films’, with a wave of African and American stories garnering critical and box office successes, from the American Civil Rights film The Butler to the slavery drama 12 Years a Slave and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
While he’s not a fan of that phrase — “If you call this year the year of black films, what are you going to call it next year? The year of nothing films?” — he says he’s proud to be part of the movement that’s seemingly changing in Hollywood. At least for now.
“Thanks to all these films and great performances, I think moving forward, it’s going to be easy for people of colour to make films. It has to be,” he says, “Because at the end of the day, it boils down to finances. So when studios start to feel that making such films could be profitable, it’s an incentive to make more.
“I think it will be easier going forward… if I had anything to do with it.”
In Fruitvale Station, Jordan plays Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old who was shot at by a white police officer while returning from a party on New Year’s Eve 2009. Grant died the following day, his death leading to massive riots in and around California.
Despite its premise Jordan hopes the film, also by first-time director Ryan Coogler, will spur debate and make people question their prejudices.
“Racism is never ever going to go anywhere. But I just feel like it has to get better,” he says. “My approach is if you hide the medicine in the food, you can get people to change the way they look at things. If you can watch a movie that gets you to question about the way you think things, I think that’s powerful.
“Will racism every go away? I don’t think it ever will, at least in my lifetime. But if you can have it happen not as often, I think that’s a start.”
Did you know?
— Michael B Jordan will play the grandson of Apollo Creed, the character from the Rocky films, in a spin-off directed by Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler.
— Jordan has also been rumoured to play Johnny Storm aka Human Torch in the new Fantastic Four reboot. But he does not want to say anything yet since it’s all still ‘moving puzzle’.
— He managed to squeeze in a few adventures during his four-day stay in Dubai: heading to Skydive Dubai on Monday and to the Dubai Autodrome Sunday.
