Michael B. Jordan at the 2026 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for Santa Barbara International Film Festival Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment "I loved that guy so much, and it saddens me every time I think about it that I won't get a chance to work with him again," Michael B. Jordan said of Chadwick Boseman, his costar in 2018's Black Panther, during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival's Outstanding Performer of the Year Award tribute to Jordan on Thursday evening. Inside Santa Barbara's historic 2,018-seat Arlington Theatre, which was sold out, Jordan was being feted for his critically-acclaimed portrayal of twins in Ryan Coogler's Sinners when moderator Roger Durling, the fest's executive director, asked him if he felt the presence of Boseman, who died of colon cancer in 2020, during the making of that film. Jordan choked up and then answered in the affirmative. Related Stories Movies 'The Secret Agent' Casting Director Reveals the Role That Was Hardest to Cast Movies Rose Byrne Says She's "Gifted at Disassociating" "It was early in the shoot - maybe the first two weeks - and it was the first day that I had to go between both twins, going back and forth, and we were trying to figure out who goes first, Smoke or Stack," he recalled. "I was having a lot of conversations inbetween, and I dropped my accent and it was full Mike talking for a second. And then I tried to get back into the mindset of one of the twins, and it took me a little bit longer to get back into character than I would have liked. I remember me and Coogs were having a sidebar conversation between one of the setups, and he was like - not these words verbatim, but along the lines of - 'What would Chad do?' And I kind of looked at him for a second and was like, 'Alright, say no more.' I knew exactly what he meant. And that propelled and pushed me, gave me another gear to go to. So yeah, Chadwick was with me. He's always with me." Jordan, who was previously feted at SBIFF with one of its Virtuosos Awards in 2014 and with its Cinema Vanguard Award in 2019 (I served as the moderator for the latter), received a lengthy standing ovation upon returning to the stage of the Arlington. The actor, who turned 39 on Feb. 9, reflected on how childhood modeling led to his first acting opportunities on TV shows like The Wire and Friday Night Lights; Andre Royo, who played "Bubbles" on The Wire, helped him to fall in love with acting, he said, and he started "chasing that feeling." He then recalled moving to LA at 18 or 19 and slowly broke into the movies, initially as part of ensembles like the one at the center of Josh Trank's 2012 film Chronicle, and then after meeting Coogler, as a solo lead, starting with 2013's Fruitvale Station. After they met about Fruitvale but before they had even begun shooting that film, Jordan recalled, Coogler presented him with an offer unlike any he had received before: "He pitched Creed to me maybe the next week." Coogler directed that 2015 offshoot of the Rocky franchise, which proved to be a blockbuster. Steven Caple Jr. took over the directing reins for its first sequel, 2018's Creed II. And Jordan himself helmed 2023's Creed III, the fights for which he choreographed in the style of the Japanese anime he loves. Prodded about the possibility of further installments in the franchise, Jordan acknowledged, to loud applause, "There's definitely gonna be a Creed IV, for sure." Numerous other Jordan projects were discussed, from 2012's Red Tails, which George Lucas produced, to 2019's Just Mercy, which Jordan himself produced, but most of the focus was on Sinners. Jordan spoke about the challenges of playing twins with very different personalities and essentially acting opposite himself - he kept separate journals for each to figure out their personalities, did "chakra work" to determine where in their body they each kept their pain, and helped Coogler to coordinate scenes in which the two characters would interact. "I would have to direct my twin-double during rehearsals of what I was going to do when I became the other twin," he explained. Jordan, who had to go directly from making Sinners to directing and starring in a remake of The Thomas Crown Affair (which is due out next year), said he is still processing the response to Sinners, which has proven to be a bona fide cultural phenomenon - it grossed $369 million worldwide and, on Jan. 22, garnered a record-setting 16 Oscar noms, including the first of Jordan's career. But when Jordan's Sinners costar and fellow first-time Oscar nominee Delroy Lindo came on stage - to a standing ovation of his own - to present Jordan with the fest's award, he spelled it out for him. Lindo said he was honored to have had a front row seat to "the emerging