Just ahead of the release of his directorial debut with Creed III, Michael B. Jordan has made it to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The actor, producer and director received the 2751st star, bringing Ryan Coogler, Jonathan Majors and his family out to the official unveiling.
Jordan has earned the star with his body of work on film and television. His relationship with Coogler goes back to 2013, when the then-fledgling director and the actor, best known for his work on TV shows like The Wire and Friday Night Lights, was building his career.
Coogler says he had Jordan in mind for his directorial debut Fruitvale Station but wanted to meet with the actor first before officially casting him.
"I had just seen him work in film and television around that time but I didn't know what type of person he was. I wanted to make sure we had good chemistry [and] we would be able to work together, to relate over the few months of shooting," Coogler said at the Walk of Fame ceremony.
"We met at a Starbucks not too far from Universal Studios... We sat down right there in the lobby and we talked about our families, about our hopes, our dreams, why he got into the business...," Coogler continued. "And I remember thinking, 'Man, I hope this dude wants to do this movie because it feels like he's going places, man. I realized that he hadn't been a lead on a television show or in a movie yet and I said, 'Man, we got to change that.' But I had no idea how much we would have a chance to change that."Coogler called working with Jordan "the ride of a lifetime."
"And then it came time for Black Panther [and] got to work with our incredible brother, Chadwick [Boseman], who I feel is smiling on us right now," Coogler said. "Getting to watch them battle every day, I knew I was looking at something special. I felt like I was looking at, like, Denzel and Will or Wesley in their prime and in the same movie in a way that we never got to see them. I felt like the luckiest director on the planet every day on that set."
Coogler and Jordan are collaborating again for Coogler's "In Proximity" Podcast which debuts on March 12 on podcast platforms and at proximitymedia.com. Created by Coogler under his Proximity Media umbrella, the podcast promises behind-the-scenes insight on film and TV from some of the industry's heavy hitters.
Upcoming podcasts include Coogler with Majors, Creed III star Tessa Thompson with Proximity's head of television Kalia King, writer-director Aneesh Chaganty (Searching, Run), and Proximity founder Sev Ohanian, and Coogler with Macro founder and CEO Charles D.King (Jesus and the Black Messiah, Mudbound).
Majors, who is on his own career trajectory with roles in The Harder They Fall, Lovecraft Country and the upcoming Magazine Dreams, says that he learned a lot working with Jordan for the first time.
"In my time with Mike -- I like to say I'm new to the party -- I've seen him fight in many rounds in many things," Majors told the crowd. "Sometimes it's his body giving out in the day of shooting and him looking at me in the eye and saying, 'Let's go, let's continue.' When it's hot, we're tired, his empathetic agility is being pushed to its Nth degree. He's gotta deal with my crazy [expletive] everybody pulling on him, and I'm giving him hell in [Creed], but he's dealing with it with a mythic effort, with a god-like integrity."
"I love you to the moon and back," he concluded.
"I just really want to say thank you to everyone that is here," he said. "[To] the people that really know me I often say, 'I don't deserve this.'
He continued, "I very rarely stop and smell the roses and take in moments," he said. "I'm always moving on to the next thing; this fleeting feeling of time slipping away from me. For the first time in a really long time, I'm taking this moment in."
Creed III is in theaters on Friday.
