“Black Panther” star, Michael B. Jordan who played the character of Erik Killmonger in the multiple award-winning film has revealed why he went for therapy immediately after he finished shooting.
Speaking to media mogul, Oprah Winfrey about how getting into character for his role in the hit film affected him, he disclosed that he had to do so many things to assume the character he played.
According to him, his character was that of a boy who had a lonely childhood with no friends but just his dreams and in order to get into character, he had to shut out his loved ones, a thing that led him to a dark place. He said,
“I spent a lot of time alone. 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 went on to describe how he later got back to his real self after the movie,
“I went to therapy, I started talking to people, starting unpacking a little bit. It helped me out a lot…It was a little tough for me at first. Readjusting to people caring about me, getting that love that I shut out. I shut out love, I didn’t want love. I wanted to be in this lonely place as long as I could.”
He continued,
“Of course 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. When it was all over, I think just being in that kind of mind state … it caught up with me.”
Speaking on why he recommends therapy,
“Your mind is so powerful. Your mind will get your body past a threshold that it would have given up on way before. Honestly, therapy, just talking to somebody just helped me 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.“