For Sinners writer-director Ryan Coogler, there was really no choice other than Michael B. Jordan to play Smoke and Stack. “As soon as I imagined what those two characters were going to be, I knew I had to call Mike,” Coogler said Sunday backstage after the pair picked up two of the historic film’s four Oscars.
Jordan brought another level of expertise to the characters, going so far as to write journals for the brothers. “I try to go from the earliest memory that I can conjure up and think of, and I write all the way up to the first page of the script,” he said. “That gives me an opportunity to figure out where they’re coming from, and that informs a lot of their decisions. Smoke is quiet, he’s a protector, and then Stack is a little bit more light and buoyant, a little bit of a slick talker and a troublemaker. So, I tried to just establish different perspectives.”
Coogler, who won the Oscar for Original Screenplay, and Jordan, who won the Oscar for Actor in a Leading Role, both stopped by backstage to talk a bit more about their process for the film.
Coogler has talked a lot about his Uncle James as an inspiration for the film, who he says is “the closest thing he has to a grandfather” and set the stage to make a film rooted in family history. “I’m so proud that he gave me the gift of his stories about Mississippi,” he says. “And he continues to give me gifts from where he is now.”
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For Jordan, he says the recognition for the role tonight is timely. “I’m here because of the people that came before me,” he said. “Sidney [Poitier] and Denzel [Washington], Halle Berry … all those actors who graced the stage, not looking for awards and not looking for acknowledging the artist. They want to do the work, and that’s something I’ve always focused on, was trying to do the work.”