Michael B. Jordan Channels Chadwick Boseman’s Spirit In Vampire Thriller “Sinners”

Michael B. Jordan found more than inspiration. He found a guiding presence while filming Sinners, his new vampire thriller where he plays identical twin brothers. At 38, the actor says it was the memory of his late friend and Black Panther co-star, Chadwick Boseman, that helped him bring these two complex roles to life.

“I remember we were doing a camera test early on,” Michael shared, “when I was still finding my way into the characters, and Coog reminded me of what Chad did with T’Challa [in Black Panther] — how he really leaned into that character and embodied him throughout the shoot.”

“I said, ‘Say no more,’ and from then on, the performance was done in that light,” he added.

Michael and director Ryan Coogler built a brotherhood with Chadwick while working on Black Panther in 2018. His passing in 2020 at just 43 left a deep mark on both men. 

In an interview with The New York Times, Michael reflected on the bond they shared, saying, “There’s not a lot of us doing what we’re doing. With Chad, it felt like we finally had a little squad, you know? It went from being the two of us to three. And then it went back down to two again.”

Ryan, who first teamed up with Michael on Fruitvale Station in 2013, added that losing Chadwick “messed everybody up,” and admitted that it “might have messed” Mike up the worst. As he said, “This is a tricky business to navigate, like any business, and nobody looked out for us like Chad.”

Sinners, directed by Ryan, features Michael playing twin brothers caught up in a dark tale set in the South, with one twist: vampires. Michael revealed that his own real-life relationships helped shape the deep connection between the twin characters.

“I’ve got a brother that I’m extremely tight with and close and love a lot, and best friends that are like brothers,” he said, referring to his younger brother Khalid. According to him, the onscreen connection between the twin characters was about “imagining those dynamics and incorporating that into the body double that I was acting opposite, and premeditating those choices because once I do one, I have to go on the other side and play the other brother and I’m already going against a performance that I already did before.”

Building the emotional layers of these two characters wasn’t easy, but it was worth it for the actor.