Black Panther actor Michael B Jordan sought therapy after ‘lonely’ villain role

The actor struggled to break out from his character's mindset when cameras stopped rolling

Michael B Jordan has revealed that he got so deep into his role as the villain in Black Panther that he sought therapy.

The actor, who plays Kilmonger in the Marvel superhero film, told Oprah Winfrey that he spent so much time isolating himself for the role that it was hard to get out of the villain’s mindset when cameras stopped rolling.

He was speaking on Winfrey’s podcast, “SuperSoul Conversations,” when he said: “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.”

He continued: “It’s an extreme, exaggerated version of the African diaspora from the African-American perspective, so to be able to take that kind of pain and rage and all those emotions that Erik kind of represents from being black and brown here in America… that was something I didn’t take lightly,” Jordan said.

Jordan added that therapy “helped [him] out a lot”.

“As a man, you get a lot of slack for it… I don’t really subscribe to that. Everyone needs to unpack and talk.”

Black Panther, directed by Ryan Coogler, has been nominated for Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards.

The full episode will be available to listen to on 24 March.