Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors are superstars these days, with blockbusters amongst their credits, but both have also lined their resumes with smaller, more character-driven fare. Both men appear in the new Creed III, opening March 3 and filmed in Atlanta. Ahead of a local premiere last week, the two spoke to press briefly while in town.
Creed III continues the story of the titular character — the son of Rocky boxer Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) — from the 2015 original film and its 2018 sequel. Adonis Creed (Jordan) has been dominant in the boxing arena and is on a high both professionally and in his personal life with his wife, Bianca (Tessa Thompson), and their young daughter, Amara. A face from his past re-enters the picture, though. Damian Anderson (Majors) is a former boxing prodigy and childhood friend of Adonis who winds up spending a long time in prison. While locked up, Damian dreams of nothing more than getting a chance to return to his previous world and setting up a match with Adonis.
The character was on the road to being something great, according to Majors. “Not good — something great,” he says. “He was undoubtedly the best, then the opportunity was lost because of an event that he shared with Adonis. In his isolation, he comes to the understanding that he may have the opportunity to reclaim that, and that is his drive: to walk back into the self he was going to be.”
This is the first film in the Rocky series without Sylvester Stallone, with scripters Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin going in a new direction. Stallone does have a producer credit, however.
Majors is not surprised that the films in the series have continually been successful at the box office, starting in the ‘70s and continuing now.
“These films were popular because Sylvester Stallone is probably one of the most charismatic men in the world. He carried the franchise for so long, and now Michael B. Jordan, as we all know, is the most charismatic man in the world.”
Audiences can relate to the characters on screen, Majors feels.
“You see these guys, and they are everyday guys and they are underdogs. I think that is a beautiful thing. I think the other thing that grabs our attention is what they do physically. Everybody has a body. Everyone doesn’t have access to funds or to education but everyone was born with a body, and if it is an able body, God bless. If you have an able body, this idea of boxing, the metaphor of boxing, is a container for the American dream, a container for ambition. If you lift the weight, throw punches, and if you can lift yourself off the canvas, you can be the champion. You can achieve your goal and that is something everybody attaches to.”
Jordan made his mark first in television with early roles in The Sopranos and Cosby before becoming a regular on The Wire. He shot to fame as Vince Howard in the series Friday Night Lights and then jumped into films such as Fruitvale Station. 2018’s Black Panther made him an A-lister.
The actor knew this was the time to make his debut behind the camera. He felt he had something to say. “At this point in my life — I just turned 36 — I’ve had the chance to play Adonis Creed three times over the last eight years,” he says. “In the last eight years of my life I have grown a lot, in a lot of different ways. At some point, a lot of the personal things I go through, Adonis goes through, and being able to show that through character and story was very therapeutic for me. It felt like no one else could direct me in what Adonis was going through but me and that was the reason to get behind the camera.”
Neither man is a stranger to the area. Jordan also filmed Black Panther locally while Majors made the just-released Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and some of Lovecraft Country here. Majors also attended SCAD’s TVfest in 2017 as part of the cast of TV’s When We Rise, one of his first major projects.
Jordan also enjoys working with the local Office of Film & Entertainment. “The partnership we have in making these movies, and the environment and the community of filmmakers and cast and crew from here is incredible. [It’s great] being able to be diverse and tell a lot of different stories that take place all over the world. Atlanta seems to be a place that you can make feel like any place when it comes to storytelling, which is truly valuable. The tax incentives are very strong and lucrative when it comes to making bigger-budget movies. I love it down here.”
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Jim Farmer covers theater and film for ArtsATL. A graduate of the University of Georgia, he has written about the arts for 30-plus years. Jim is the festival director of Out on Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival. He lives in Avondale Estates with his husband, Craig, and dog, Douglas.
