Michael B. Jordan, Jonathan Majors, Tessa Thompson| 'Creed III' Interviews
"Creed III" stars Michael B. Jordan (Director/"Adonis Creed"), Jonathan Majors (Damian Anderson), Tessa Thompson (Bianca Creed) and Mila Davis-Kent (Amara Creed) discuss their third "Creed" film in this interview with CinemaBlend's Jeff McCobb. Jonathan Majors talks about becoming an internet sex symbol, Michael B. Jordan discusses the reigns as director and much, much more.
Category
đ„
Short filmTranscript
00:00 you were reported to be involved with a Val Zod,
00:03 HBO, Superman scenario.
00:06 - I haven't talked about that, sorry.
00:08 - Oh, okay.
00:09 I had to try.
00:10 (laughing)
00:11 - It was a noble attempt.
00:13 It was a noble attempt.
00:13 - For real.
00:14 (upbeat music)
00:17 - I noticed when I was watching it,
00:23 I was paying particular attention to the direction,
00:26 to shot composition and stuff like that,
00:28 just because we have an accomplished young actor,
00:32 it's your first time out the gate,
00:34 so people are gonna be paying extra attention to it.
00:37 Were you aware of that pressure going into it?
00:39 - I mean, I knew I was gonna be compared
00:41 to everything that came before me,
00:42 other actor directors, all that good stuff.
00:46 That's kind of part of it,
00:48 but still, that didn't really sway my choices
00:53 or how I wanted to do things.
00:55 If anything, it made me take more creative swings
00:58 and kind of rely on my instinct and things
01:00 that I'm just trying to story tell
01:03 and really tap into the emotions and the characters
01:05 and the visual language and where I put the cameras
01:08 and things of that nature.
01:10 Some I had very vividly in my brain
01:12 and some we just figure out on the day,
01:14 my incredible cinematographer and my incredible cast.
01:17 So it was just listening to all things
01:20 and trying to make the most truthful decisions and choices.
01:23 - Let's see if I can say this
01:25 in the least awkward way possible,
01:26 but you've been getting some attention for your physique.
01:30 But that's nothing new.
01:32 Even Montgomery was in pretty good shape.
01:34 - Thank you. - Right?
01:35 - Thank you.
01:36 - So now that you're playing hulking characters
01:39 like Kang and Dame,
01:41 do you just try and stay in peak shape the whole time
01:44 or do they all have a different approach?
01:46 - Well, they're all different weight classes.
01:49 I like to think they're all champs,
01:50 but they're all different weight classes.
01:52 Kang is in the Avenger class.
01:55 He's in the Marvel class.
01:56 That's a certain stature.
01:59 I know he's gonna move a certain way.
02:02 I mean, fitness and health
02:03 have always been a big thing for me,
02:04 but the opportunity to apply those things
02:08 directly to cinema is new
02:11 because these characters are a bit,
02:13 for lack of a better term, extreme.
02:15 These guys do that.
02:17 This guy is a boxer,
02:20 world heavyweight boxer.
02:22 Picture I shot after this, he was a bodybuilder,
02:25 a real bodybuilder,
02:26 so those things had to be done.
02:28 So a certain amount of maintenance.
02:31 You know what I mean?
02:32 Appetite is the appetite now.
02:34 You know, gotta eat, gotta sleep.
02:36 Yeah.
02:38 - Have you seen the humorous thirst trap tweets
02:41 or do you avoid it?
02:43 - I've been shared.
02:44 Your colleagues tend to wanna share them.
02:46 - To colleagues, yeah, yeah.
02:47 - Yeah, it's--
02:47 - Everyone wants to make you feel awkward,
02:48 put you on the spot.
02:49 - Yeah, it's a,
02:51 I really only pretend to be uncomfortable sometimes.
02:54 Doesn't really bother me.
02:56 - I've always thought you had the hardest job
02:58 because in all three films,
02:59 a lot of your gig is reacting silently, right?
03:04 You're reacting to watching this man fight for his life.
03:08 I was wondering if you could take me through
03:10 what that process is like
03:11 and is there anything you tap into?
03:12 - I really appreciate, I think,
03:15 the idea of getting to act in silences.
03:18 Like, I always really love that challenge,
03:21 what you can communicate
03:23 without words.
03:25 And I think something that felt particularly interesting
03:29 this go-around is also to work inside of ASL.
03:33 I think the way that that also changed my idea
03:36 of performance and getting to work with Mila.
03:40 This is her first time acting and she's remarkable,
03:44 but I learned a lot from her
03:45 in terms of everything that you can express
03:50 without words in the way that I have always known
03:55 how to express myself.
03:56 So I think that was an exciting new thing to find
04:00 at this point in playing this character.
04:03 - How does that feel, that your first time out the gate,
04:05 you're serving as an example?
04:07 - Yeah, well, I feel really happy about that statement,
04:10 but I wanna say, okay, I did teach her some things.
04:14 You know, I did show her how to express herself,
04:17 but she also taught me a lot too.
04:20 So really, I think it was her mostly teaching me,
04:23 not the other way around.
04:24 I would look at her facial expressions.
04:26 I would look at how she showed emotions,
04:28 how she expressed herself,
04:30 how she showed her character's reaction,
04:32 how things looked so real.
04:34 And actually I learned so much from her on this film.
04:37 So I just wanna thank her for teaching me all those things.
04:40 And she made it easier for me to feel comfortable
04:43 during this whole process,
04:44 because sometimes you can feel like it might be hard
04:47 and it's challenging if you've never done it before,
04:50 but having someone with her, like her on my team,
04:52 she would come over and explain things to me,
04:54 tell me about the characters.
04:56 And then I would say, okay, I feel a lot more comfortable
04:58 and it's easier for me to go ahead and do it
05:01 and know how to react.
05:02 So thank you, Tessa.
05:03 - Aw, this is so much more wholesome
05:07 than I planned on it being this way.
05:09 - You see that man right there?
05:12 Do you remember him?
05:13 - How many times have you seen Creed III now,
05:19 would you say?
05:20 - Oh, I couldn't even count.
05:23 - 100?
05:24 - Maybe more, probably more.
05:26 Yeah, I mean, so many versions, how many,
05:28 cutting it down, how many sequences I had to look at
05:31 individually, putting it together.
05:32 Yeah, I'll probably watch it one more time,
05:38 like tomorrow with my family,
05:39 and then I'm stepping away from it for sure.
05:42 - You got to memorize at this point.
05:44 - Yeah, yeah, it's not for me anymore.
05:46 I think it's for everybody else.
05:47 So I'm just ready to turn it over to the world
05:49 and for everybody, 'cause I've been living with it
05:52 for three years, so I'm ready to step away.
05:54 - In the film, you play Michael B.'s mentor,
05:58 older brother, you know what I mean?
06:00 But you're three years younger than the dude.
06:02 - I am.
06:03 - Is that a conversation you guys had,
06:05 and did that feel--
06:06 - We never talked about it.
06:08 We all knew, but we never talked about it.
06:11 We never talked about it, never had a chat.
06:13 We were just like, yeah, we're just gonna do it.
06:15 - It just never came out?
06:16 - Well, I think it's like certain things are understood.
06:20 Mike moves through the world a certain way,
06:23 I move through the world a certain way,
06:25 and it worked for whatever reason.
06:27 - It totally worked.
06:28 - You buy it, you know?
06:30 - Before you said action the very first time,
06:34 how much shooting had you done prior to that?
06:37 Were you making short films to test shots?
06:39 Were you filming whole scenes and cutting 'em up
06:42 just to see how it was gonna look?
06:44 - That's a great question.
06:45 I think I shot some references of like, you know,
06:50 one-ers, but never with the words action,
06:52 you know what I'm saying?
06:54 I didn't say action a lot,
06:56 even during the course of the movie, you know?
06:58 I think I mostly said cut, you know?
07:01 Or I just motioned for cut more than anything,
07:03 so that was kinda my thing.
07:05 - Sounds like a lot of editing.
07:08 - A lot of editing, but no, just like, you know,
07:10 just to get a scene started, you know,
07:14 it's probably better for,
07:15 sometimes I would just let the cameras roll
07:16 and we would just fall into it, you know,
07:18 without the anxiety of waiting for, you know, action.
07:21 But to get out of something is,
07:24 and not letting things linger as long,
07:25 I would just kinda motion a little little scissor
07:28 to my first AD and we kinda built a system
07:30 that once he saw the scissors,
07:31 he knew that's when I wanted to cut,
07:33 and then we would get out of it.
07:34 - Do you think Dame is a good person?
07:37 And how do you feel that the climax of the film
07:40 changed him as a man?
07:42 - Damien's fighting the world
07:43 and he's trying to hurt people.
07:45 I vouch for you.
07:46 You think you mad?
07:47 Try spending half your life in a cell.
07:49 - I think Dame is absolutely a good person.
07:52 I think he's the type of good person
07:53 that we're actually around more often than we think,
07:56 and we don't always see him.
07:58 I think his arc has changed,
08:03 and he's a better person at the end
08:07 because the responsibility he takes for,
08:12 he becomes even more whole.
08:14 All the ambition, all the drive.
08:16 His heart is healed at the end.
08:19 So now I think Dame might be unstoppable.
08:23 - You've been doing this with Michael for seven years,
08:25 eight years now, something like that.
08:28 - I think it's nine.
08:29 - Wow.
08:31 - Yeah.
08:32 - All I have is release dates.
08:33 You have shooting schedules and the whole thing.
08:37 Was it bizarre to have this co-star
08:42 who is now taking on this other role?
08:45 - It was so cool.
08:46 I mean, I think sometimes there's this,
08:48 it's a funny thing where people are like,
08:50 "What was it like?"
08:52 But the truth is, I feel like it's always been
08:54 such a collaborative process.
08:56 I feel like we, throughout the course of making
08:58 the other films, have always been directing each other
09:00 in a weird way because we'll check in with each other.
09:02 We're like, "How did that feel?
09:03 "What do you think?"
09:05 So it felt very collaborative.
09:06 And also, I think anyone that's on set is a filmmaker.
09:11 And Mike has been on sets since he was Milo's age,
09:17 younger, and I feel like there's so much experience
09:22 that he has, so I think it's a really,
09:25 kind of a natural transition for him.
09:26 So it felt really good.
09:28 - You out there boxing, I need you to start fighting.
09:32 (dramatic music)
09:35 (dramatic music)
09:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]