Michael B. Jordan saw therapist after playing Killmonger in ‘Black Panther’

Michael
B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger in “Black
Panther.”
Disney

• Michael B. Jordan said on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” that he
  was depressed after playing the villain Killmonger in “Black
  Panther.”
• “Once I got finished wrapping the movie, it took me some time
  to talk through how I was feeling,” Jordan said.
• Jordan said he saw a therapist after filming the movie, and
  it took him a month to get through it.

Michael B. Jordan’s performance as the villain Erik Killmonger in
this year’s Marvel blockbuster, “Black Panther,” has received
widespread acclaim. The character was so compelling that it even
inspired a viral hashtag,
#KillmongerWasRight, after the movie’s release.

But on a recent episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” Jordan
opened up about the mental state playing Killmonger left him in.

In the episode, Bill Simmons recalled having dinner with Jordan
about a year ago, after Jordan had just finished shooting “Black
Panther,” and said he remembered Jordan was “messed up from it.”

“That character you played, you went to a dark place for it, and
you were having trouble coming out of it,” Simmons said to
Jordan.

“It was one of those things were I didn’t know what was going
on,” Jordan said. “I was never in a character for that long of a
period of time that was that dark and that lonely, that painful.
Coming out of it, I thought, ‘business as usual, I can just go
home, cut my hair off, and everything will go back to normal.'”

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Jordan went on to explain why that wasn’t the case.

“I found myself kind of in the routine of being isolated and I
went out of my way to make sure I was by myself, and didn’t say
too much more than the usual,” he continued. “Once I got finished
wrapping the movie, it took me some time to talk through how I
was feeling and why I was feeling so sad and, you know,
depressed.”

Jordan said he talked to a therapist a few times, and that it
took him a month to get past what he was feeling by “getting back
to doing regular things,” like being with his friends and family.

“And being present, not just being in the room, but being present
and engaging,” he said. “And just talking things out that I never
really talked through.”

Jordan said that he “didn’t know” if there was any other way to
play Killmonger without getting lost in the character because
there was “no blueprint.”

“I was just doing what I felt was right,” he said. “Whatever got
me emotionally to the place I needed to be, that’s what I did.”

Listen to the full “Bill Simmons Podcast” interview with Jordan
here.