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Michael B. Jordan Talks New Film 'A Journal For Jordan' & Working with Denzel Washington
Dec 22, 2021
'A Journal For Jordan' is a Denzel Washington directed film, starring Michael B. Jordan with a screenplay by Virgil Williams. The film is based on the true story of First Sergeant Charles Monroe King (Jordan), a soldier deployed to Iraq who begins to keep a journal of love and advice for his infant son.
Michael B. Jordan sat down with the Sway In The Morning team to talk about the film, working with Denzel Washing, dealing with PTSD and much more.
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Michael B. Jordan Talks New Film 'A Journal For Jordan' & Working with Denzel Washingtonhttps://youtu.be/1cStf_OQGn0
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0:00
yes yes man that's a trailer for a movie
0:02
of the ages a journal for jordan in
0:05
theaters december 25th
0:08
what a gift to the world this movie is i
0:10
got a chance to see it for myself i
0:12
can't give away too much of it hb and
0:15
tracy but what a wonderful
0:17
wonderful gift this movie is um starring
0:20
a good friend of the show
0:22
uh db do the honors i love when you
0:23
introduce him and you you put him on
0:25
such a pedestal he always comes back
0:32
all right so
0:34
last time he was here he was talking
0:35
about his film without remorse but i
0:37
mean it's great to have him back twice
0:39
within a couple of months and i mean
0:40
it's always a great pleasure to have him
0:42
on sway in the morning i was just
0:43
watching fahrenheit 451 the other day
0:45
which is a amazing film and gave me a
0:48
greater understanding of what that book
0:50
was about because i didn't get it when i
0:51
was in school but it's great to have him
0:53
on the show now he's a star and the
0:56
executive producer along with denzel
0:58
washington who also directed this film a
1:00
journal for jordan which is uh in
1:02
theaters like you said soy december 25th
1:04
and we got to be very careful that we
1:05
don't spoil anything but citizens it is
1:08
an amazing film and it's based on a true
1:09
story so please welcome him back to the
1:11
show our good friend he's a citizen
1:13
michael b jordan
1:16
[Applause]
1:17
[Music]
1:20
what's up michael
1:22
good man it's great it's great to see
1:24
you man uh loving the mustache
1:27
thank you thank you man it's not quite
1:29
what it was in quarantine but it's still
1:30
here you know what man it's still here
1:32
yeah your mustache grow bigger than my
1:35
beard man i'm a little right now
1:40
i named the murph his name is murphy you
1:42
know what i'm saying murphy murphy
1:43
murphy every once in a while
1:47
murphy the mustache i will say this
1:49
about the film michael b jordan man in
1:51
many ways hb and tracy we remind me of a
1:54
little bit of myself man you know it's
1:56
been a lot of people behind the camera
1:58
you know michael as you know i've been
2:00
behind the camera for over 20 years you
2:02
know did a few movies and stuff and one
2:03
of the things that was always important
2:05
to me was my physique you know and i and
2:08
i noticed in the film that you put in
2:10
the kind of work that i put in in my
2:12
past get my physique to where it is man
2:15
can you you know what i mean michael you
2:16
know how we actually
2:17
we connect on that man we understand
2:20
everybody don't understand what that's
2:21
like you know
2:23
man
2:23
what's been your regiment because you
2:25
obviously i've seen you you know you got
2:27
to that stage i remember
2:30
[Laughter]
2:33
um honestly man i got phases man cause
2:36
i'll be so locked in for a while but i'm
2:38
such a foodie man i'm such a foodie so
2:40
when i don't i don't have to be in crazy
2:42
shape i i go there like i i i mean the
2:46
deliveries the food deliveries i'm a
2:48
taster so i'm always at like a buffet i
2:50
like to have just like a little bit of
2:52
everything just to kind of you know
2:53
saying taste it all but uh my my workout
2:56
regimen right now is
2:58
you know i'm working out probably twice
3:00
a day
3:01
six days a week but that's but but it's
3:03
that intense right now because i'm
3:05
getting prepared for creed3 and i'm
3:07
since i'm directing this one uh i don't
3:08
have as much time as i would if i was
3:10
just in front of the camera so i'm
3:12
trying to get as
3:13
in shape as quickly as i can so i could
3:15
just worry about all the other things i
3:17
got to take care of so my workout
3:18
regimen is pretty crazy right now
3:20
that's why now it's time for you to ask
3:22
that question what's his regimen like
3:25
you're free to do that
3:27
no now we understand you know what i'm
3:28
saying i pretty much got it right right
3:30
right
3:31
same thing right i mean
3:32
i'm five days a week you know
3:34
particularly
3:37
you're directing creed and i get that
3:39
and what's awesome about that because
3:41
now you work with ryan coogler obviously
3:43
sylvester stallone and now denzel as
3:47
directors right and so what what are
3:50
what kind of
3:51
what are you borrowing or taking from
3:53
them and what was the differences in
3:55
working with those three different
3:56
directors
3:57
um it's crazy you know ryan uh when we
4:00
first did fruitville and especially
4:02
creed you know he you know he told me
4:04
mike hey man you need you know you need
4:05
to direct you just go ahead just go
4:07
ahead and do it it's never going to be
4:08
the right time everything isn't going to
4:09
be perfect you just got to jump into the
4:11
deep end and just and just go for it you
4:13
know a couple years went by worked with
4:14
stephen cable and creed 2.
4:16
um and and now denzel
4:19
denzel you know he's always full of
4:21
knowledge in gems he's always imparting
4:23
wisdom and and and one of the main
4:26
approaches that he kind of told me to
4:28
take was get a storyboard artist as
4:30
quickly as possible and i'm like
4:32
storyboard artist yeah get a storyboard
4:34
artist and i was like okay okay and he
4:35
explained why he said you want to start
4:38
the visual language of your film as
4:39
early as possible so right there we were
4:41
at rehearsals
4:43
and he called up one of his storyboard
4:45
artists you know from the film
4:47
and uh he put him on the phone he
4:48
pitched my movie to him
4:50
and then put me on the phone with him
4:52
and said hey man hire and i and
4:54
literally like within seven minutes i
4:57
had a storyboard artist and i was like
4:58
hey what's up hey yeah you know well
5:01
they just told you what what yeah
5:04
yeah it'll be an honor okay cool and
5:05
literally closed the deal like a week
5:07
later and uh and he was and he was doing
5:09
my boards and and i'll tell you from
5:10
that that was about a year ago to now
5:13
uh it's helped me out tremendously as
5:16
far as how to explain to my other
5:17
department heads what shots i'm looking
5:19
for how i envision the scene so
5:21
something so small something so quick so
5:23
generous of them uh really helped me out
5:25
for the length of this movie
5:26
wow wow hb you want to jump in yeah i do
5:30
michael hey what's up thank you for
5:31
joining us again um of course i know you
5:33
spent a lot of time in jersey i'm a
5:35
jersey girl as well and um i actually
5:38
have a relative that worked with your
5:41
father while he was working in new
5:42
jersey and one of the things okay
5:45
my brother said to me was that your dad
5:48
was super humble and you know you would
5:50
never know that his son like was his son
5:54
and your dad was just just beautiful
5:56
just straight-up kind of beautiful man
5:58
and when sway said what did you learn
6:00
and what did you pick up from the
6:02
directors i would actually say the same
6:04
thing about you like when people ask us
6:06
about artists and i just said this to
6:08
zen as well but i would add that you are
6:10
very humble and we always notice that
6:13
all these beautiful accomplishments all
6:15
these things you've done would you say
6:16
you picked that up from your dad or was
6:18
it your mom like because humility is a
6:21
beautiful thing to have michael and even
6:23
harder to maintain in this industry but
6:24
you have it
6:26
and thank you for that i'm a deadly
6:27
pastor as long as my pop too because i
6:29
know he it'll mean a lot to him um
6:32
you know honestly i think i'm a
6:33
combination of both my parents you know
6:34
i think i think you know my mom's you
6:37
know artists you know uh um you know my
6:40
creative side you know said i get a lot
6:42
of a lot of you know that from from from
6:44
her and my dad you know being a marine
6:46
um very very you know strict
6:49
hard-working work ethic you know i kind
6:51
of get that from him and we've always
6:53
kind of like approached life and just
6:54
like treat people how you want to be
6:56
treated you know what i'm saying and and
6:58
and and and and
7:00
you know
7:01
you know
7:03
it's almost like put your energy on
7:05
people you know what i'm saying like
7:06
shield them with what you want them to
7:08
be towards you and and and
7:10
i don't know we're really really
7:11
spiritual people so we always try to
7:13
approach things with a certain sense of
7:14
humility and um you know treat people
7:17
how you want to be treated i mean it's
7:18
that it's that simple i can't really
7:19
overexplain it's just kind of like i
7:21
guess it's who i am it's kind of how i
7:22
approach life
7:24
that's dope
7:25
yeah i know murph can appreciate it
7:27
because it looked like he brought
7:36
michael i'm happy to be speaking to you
7:38
bye guys so good seeing you
7:41
tremendously um before we get into what
7:44
i feel like is such a beautiful film i
7:46
gotta say you came to mind for me
7:47
earlier this week we were interviewing
7:49
um iconic author journalist um
7:52
editor-in-chief danielle smith and now
7:54
she's podcasting and she mentioned how
7:57
she started taking acting class classes
8:00
just to get out of her shell more to
8:02
hear her voice you know to have i guess
8:05
more body awareness so that it could
8:07
really come through in podcasting and so
8:09
i connected to you because i'm wondering
8:12
how acting
8:14
has helped you beyond acting you know
8:17
what i mean like all the lessons like
8:19
when you're nervous can you be like let
8:22
me just act like a confident person
8:26
can you create like a storyline for
8:27
yourself to get through like different
8:30
scenarios in real life
8:32
i i
8:34
i i think i've done that before i ca i
8:36
can't recall a certain scenario but but
8:38
but i think the ability to make myself
8:40
comfortable no matter where i'm at you
8:42
know i think i think that's that's an
8:43
ability i've always had and i think
8:46
that's
8:47
might be the reason why i've
8:49
kind of like gravitated towards acting
8:51
or why i've had like you know a certain
8:54
amount of success at a young age that
8:56
that that i tapped into and then been
8:58
able to kind of like grow and evolve
9:00
from there uh you know there's a
9:04
but then also having you know
9:06
the the sensibility of being like when
9:08
i'm uncomfortable just to like bounce
9:09
you know what i'm saying and not and
9:10
just you know and just and just remove
9:12
yourself from the situation but i like
9:14
to uh
9:15
and then it's also another thing is like
9:16
as black folks you know we all we we we
9:19
we have the we're always we're always
9:22
disarming other people to make other
9:23
people feel comfortable you know what
9:25
i'm saying i think that's that's
9:27
something that is ingrained in us and we
9:29
don't even think about it it's like a
9:30
second nature thing and i so so i think
9:33
all the things all the ingredients kind
9:35
of combined
9:36
you know created
9:38
you know this you know i mean in the
9:40
sense of how i move and how i
9:41
communicate and um how i kind of blend
9:44
into certain scenarios or if i choose to
9:45
stand out
9:47
db you want to jump in
9:49
yeah uh so michael uh you're playing
9:51
this guy charles monroe king and this is
9:53
you know an actual person and you know
9:56
compared to playing a uh
9:59
a fake character you know killmonger
10:01
whoever it is when you're playing
10:02
somebody that actually existed on this
10:04
earth and and was a father a son a best
10:07
friend somebody's boyfriend whatever it
10:09
is you kind of want to bring even more
10:11
to that person because there are people
10:13
who are going to watch this film and
10:15
they might judge you a little more
10:17
harshly about your portrayal it's like
10:19
he wasn't really like that you know oh
10:20
he was a little over nice you know what
10:22
i mean so
10:23
when you start to prepare to play an
10:25
actual person
10:26
where do you start from is there like a
10:28
basis for each time or is it just like
10:30
let me analyze this from
10:32
the perspective of the people that knew
10:34
him
10:35
i think i look at it at first how much
10:37
do we have in common you know how much
10:39
how much of my own personal life or my
10:41
personal experiences that i can actually
10:42
bring to the table all right and then
10:44
then you start to workshop it in a way
10:46
of you know there's a certain sense of
10:47
pressure to get it right
10:49
but i'm but i'm not trying to imitate
10:50
either you know so it's like i get to
10:52
know charles through the people that
10:54
knew him the best you know through
10:56
through his his uh his wife through uh
10:59
you know his son and and and then also
11:02
we were so fortunate to have his
11:04
thoughts in a journal you know it was
11:06
like an artifact you know when dana
11:07
brought that to set it was like oh man
11:09
this is it this is where this is where
11:11
this entire journey
11:12
started you know and it read his
11:14
thoughts and and what he felt was
11:16
important to pass on to his son um
11:18
really informed me and how to approach
11:20
uh charles as a character and also like
11:23
this this wasn't a biopic you know this
11:26
was like a this is a this is a story
11:28
about the love between charles and dana
11:31
and the love of the of the of this of
11:33
this family dynamic um
11:36
and so so
11:37
so
11:38
i i we had a little room to to bring the
11:42
essence of charles so you know
11:45
there's a you know playing somebody like
11:46
oscar grant you know again didn't have
11:48
the opportunity to really you know i'm
11:50
saying to like to to mine from from from
11:52
from him of course so to be able to have
11:54
to learn from the people around him so
11:56
it's a it's a pressure i put on myself
11:58
to get the job done and actually you
11:59
know and to get it as close as i can but
12:01
then also you know what story are we
12:03
telling right now in these two hours and
12:05
how do i best get those feelings and get
12:07
the best version of that to the screen
12:11
yeah michael b jordan is with us we're
12:13
talking about the movie the film a
12:15
journal for jordan which is in theaters
12:16
on christmas it's the perfect listen you
12:19
ain't got to go shopping get somebody a
12:20
ticket to see this movie all right and
12:22
that's the perfect gift
12:24
you know and it's based around um desert
12:26
storm the war in iraq and and and one of
12:29
the things you'll see in the movie is
12:31
that moment when uh the towers came down
12:34
in new york city i was actually all of
12:36
us i believe were all in new york city
12:38
i'm not sure about db at the time that
12:40
that happened um and
12:43
from there michael i i was working at
12:45
mtv and at that time we used to do a lot
12:47
of hard news so one of my assignments
12:50
was to really hang out with uh people
12:53
who came back from doing tours from iraq
12:56
and talk to them about uh transitional
12:59
housing getting
13:01
yeah getting back into civilian life at
13:04
that time ptsd was kind of a new phrase
13:06
for people and a lot of these uh young
13:09
men who were young 1819 2021 had similar
13:13
stories to tell on to sergeant charles
13:16
monroe king there's a lot of those
13:18
stories that are out there man once i
13:21
sat and talked to folks who really had
13:23
ptsd and really went over there i
13:26
understood how devastating you know that
13:29
journey was for them
13:31
and
13:32
watching you play this man um
13:35
reminded me of those times like i was
13:37
really deeply involved it was to the
13:39
point where i had to sit down and seek
13:41
therapy based on all the energy that i
13:43
was receiving i'm curious reading
13:45
through this man's journal and you know
13:48
playing this role and you you played it
13:50
so well both you and shantae adams did
13:52
an excellent job she's amazing yeah
13:54
she's an amazing actress she you guys
13:57
did an excellent job
13:59
did it weigh heavy on you did did you
14:01
know even after the shoot after the
14:03
movie after the film was done how did it
14:06
affect you
14:07
yeah man it was uh
14:10
it's sometimes the weight of
14:11
responsibility and and and also just
14:14
like you said hearing all the stories um
14:17
you know
14:18
a bit of an empath you know so it's
14:20
i carry that stuff with me you know and
14:23
i pick up energies and i feel it so even
14:25
hearing stories from my dad or you know
14:27
other friends and family family members
14:29
that served and hearing their
14:31
experiences or their recollection of
14:32
what happened or you know or or you know
14:35
the smells let's go crazy like even in
14:38
the project not to spoil anything but
14:40
there's a
14:41
there's a scene in the moment where
14:43
charles is describing you know
14:46
his experience
14:48
and
14:49
how he can't quite identify certain
14:51
things and he can't quite
14:53
remember exactly what it was but he
14:55
remembers the sounds and the smells and
14:58
and and things of that nature that could
15:00
be triggers for him you know uh so so
15:03
for me
15:04
afterwards it you know you just gotta
15:07
you just gotta wassup man like there's a
15:08
lot of prayer you know there's a lot of
15:10
meditation there's a lot of you know
15:12
decompressing after the day um like you
15:15
said you had to go to therapy i went to
15:16
therapy after you know uh you know after
15:18
on black panther i played killmonger and
15:20
i didn't even know what that's what i
15:22
didn't even know that's what that was
15:23
why i was feeling that i didn't even
15:24
know i didn't connect those dots until
15:26
some months after i got finished with
15:28
the project
15:29
so for this one it wasn't quite that you
15:31
know what i'm saying but at the same
15:33
time having an understanding of what
15:35
that ptsd can be
15:37
um you know it definitely i definitely
15:40
took the steps to make sure that i was
15:41
going to be good afterwards i just i was
15:43
just curious what was it about
15:45
killmonger that you discovered that's
15:47
that's that therapy it was a it was a
15:51
it was the place that i had to go to
15:54
of like sorrow and sadness that this
15:56
character had you know um you know just
15:59
being alone
16:00
and it was uh and i tapped into
16:02
something and i kind of stayed in it you
16:04
know for a long time you know and
16:07
it was uh
16:09
yeah man it was just
16:11
hard to kind of communicate and
16:12
verbalize what i was feeling you know
16:14
i'm saying so kind of go to a space that
16:15
you were able to actually kind of like
16:16
you know break that down and get asked
16:18
the right questions and just be able to
16:20
vent in a way and be vulnerable
16:22
without you know any like judgment or um
16:25
i don't know just being being being
16:27
vulnerable i guess it uh it allowed me
16:30
to
16:30
you know learn a lot about i learned a
16:32
lot about myself in the process
16:35
okay i was wondering
16:37
now we're seeing so many conversations
16:38
about how different workspaces can
16:41
embrace mental health right when it
16:43
comes to their employees and so in
16:45
hollywood i've always thought to myself
16:48
it might be a good idea to have like
16:50
therapists on set when things get really
16:52
heavy have you thought about that like
16:54
is that something that's maybe being
16:55
implemented behind the scenes
16:58
i haven't thought about it you know
17:00
i mean i think that you know maybe not
17:02
on set but maybe available to you at the
17:05
rap or something i don't know i mean
17:07
that's that i never i never honestly
17:09
like thought about it like that but i
17:10
think since it is becoming more of a a
17:13
topic in conversation especially around
17:15
sports you see a lot of these athletes
17:17
taking a lot of heat for like you know
17:18
um protecting their mental health and
17:20
their mental space and um and and
17:23
you know it's something that needs to be
17:25
taken seriously you know like check on
17:26
somebody that you think is good you know
17:28
check on the person that you think is so
17:30
strong because you never really know
17:31
what somebody's going through you know
17:33
um and i think we've seen a lot of those
17:34
cases the last couple years really
17:36
through this quarantine people didn't
17:38
didn't didn't handle that well you know
17:40
at all so to be able to just be aware of
17:43
uh
17:45
you know the help you need and to be
17:47
able hey man i need i need a break you
17:48
know that's okay that is not weakness it
17:50
doesn't make you less than anything so i
17:52
just think it's an important topic an
17:55
issue to kind of address but but to your
17:57
point i i've never thought about that
17:58
but i'm sure somebody listening to this
18:00
conversation right i put my pick up on
18:02
it and sparked something different you
18:04
heard it here first so
18:06
michael is difficult finding one though
18:08
like as michael b jordan you know what i
18:11
mean i would be wondering do you try to
18:13
find the ax your
18:15
peers you want a therapist who
18:17
understands hollywood who's worked with
18:19
like a celebrity clientele or do you not
18:21
want that you want someone who really
18:23
just focuses on the human
18:24
you know i've been i've been blessed man
18:26
i have a lot of great people around me
18:28
in my tribe man like you know from
18:30
spiritual advisors to you know just
18:32
people that i could talk invent even the
18:33
people you know people on my team you
18:35
know i'm saying that here that i like
18:36
like brothers and sisters of me that
18:38
have known me for you know damn near
18:40
decade you know those spaces become the
18:43
the event you know that that becomes the
18:46
outlet sometimes and obviously there's
18:47
like deeper personal things on certain
18:49
levels that you definitely need somebody
18:51
who's a professional you know what i'm
18:52
saying to kind of help kind of mind that
18:54
and know how to you know take that
18:56
energy and disperse the way the way it
18:58
needs to but you know
19:00
there's there's a there's a circle of
19:01
people that
19:02
that you could tap into that has high
19:04
recommendations and people that kind of
19:06
deal with you know
19:08
cats of our caliber and stuff like that
19:10
so it's it's it's out there if you look
19:11
for it you know if you seek it and
19:13
you're curious enough you'll find it
19:15
michael b jordan hey hb i know you got
19:17
to go to urban view real quick
19:19
hop off to another show michael thank
19:21
you so much
19:25
[Applause]
19:32
just uh rolling off of what tracy said
19:34
because she does make a great point
19:35
about needing to talk through whatever
19:38
stress and and uh feelings that you're
19:40
taking on in a character but at the same
19:42
time if you were to talk to a therapist
19:44
while filming something and and you heal
19:47
from that day of like whatever ptsd
19:49
trauma that you're portraying a
19:50
character but then you have to go back
19:52
the next day and go right back to being
19:54
in that headspace so is it
19:55
counterproductive to to heal while
19:58
you're filming in a character like that
20:00
i mean this is all hypotheticals because
20:02
this is not you know i mean this this is
20:04
we're walking down the road that i'm i'm
20:05
not sure but i mean i think to my point
20:07
like maybe at rat you know maybe when
20:09
the project's done it's like okay cool
20:11
you're done you know what i'm saying
20:12
let's go let's go talk and talk about
20:14
your experience or you know make sure
20:15
you good it's like you know it's what i
20:18
feel needs to happen with you know a lot
20:19
of people who serve you know when they
20:20
come back there should be things set up
20:22
in place you know what i'm saying to
20:24
really help acclimate them back into
20:27
you know society in a real way because
20:28
it's different it's not the same you
20:30
know we gotta we gotta give them that
20:31
respect we have to give them that proper
20:33
kind of um you know that process you
20:35
know so i think that's something that
20:37
should be looked at in you know all
20:39
workspaces in different fields that that
20:42
has that type of trauma that type of
20:43
impact on on a human you know i'm saying
20:45
you you need it
20:47
well listen michael b jordan man well
20:49
well done man a journal for jordan on
20:52
christmas day and i think it's important
20:53
we have these kind of topical
20:55
conversations when you're talking about
20:56
war right
20:58
exactly exactly and in this film you
21:02
know covers the full gamut how a family
21:05
is affected the family serves too
21:07
you know exactly
21:09
it's family served too and that was
21:10
portrayed really well virgil williams
21:13
the writer of the film did an excellent
21:14
job incredible and and i want to thank
21:16
you man for coming back on it hey man
21:18
continue success michael yeah man
21:21
oh man hey
21:23
you guys need me let me know
21:25
okay cool man keep up the workout man
21:28
you looking like me i'm proud of you
21:30
dude
21:34
appreciate you man y'all y'all gonna
21:35
love that but make sure that jennifer
21:37
jordan you know christmas day this is
21:39
the one i can't wait for you guys to see
21:40
it well everybody else to see it man i
21:42
appreciate the love and thanks for
21:43
always supporting me you guys all right
21:45
come back for creed 3 all right
21:47
done
22:00
you
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