In general, anyone who's famous enough to be written about should probably avoid reading what's written about them on the Internet. Especially those, who like Michael B. Jordan, are in movies that get the fanboy troll army revved up.
Jordan, who plays Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch in the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot, did not follow that advice. He read what people said about him on the Internet, and he knows there are plenty of people who had a problem with a black man taking on the character who has been a white guy for more than 50 years.
Jordan wrote an essay for EW in which he admits that it bothered him at first, but not anymore.
"Sometimes you have to be the person who stands up and says, 'I’ll be the one to shoulder all this hate. I’ll take the brunt for the next couple of generations'," Jordan writes. "I put that responsibility on myself. People are always going to see each other in terms of race, but maybe in the future we won’t talk about it as much. Maybe, if I set an example, Hollywood will start considering more people of color in other prominent roles, and maybe we can reach the people who are stuck in the mindset that 'it has to be true to the comic book.' Or maybe we have to reach past them."
And as for those trolls:
"To the trolls on the Internet, I want to say: Get your head out of the computer. Go outside and walk around. Look at the people walking next to you. Look at your friends’ friends and who they’re interacting with. And just understand this is the world we live in. It’s okay to like it."
You can read the entire short essay, which is totally worth it, here.
