Michael B. Jordan is setting his sights on global fame and creating his own lane in the process.
In a cover story by Allison P. Davis for GQ, the Creed IIstar talks about what his future holds as one of Hollywood’s leading men in 2018. “I remember when it used to be like, ‘He's the next Will Smith,’” Jordan said. “Now I'm the example of the next—they're looking for the next me.”
But Smith isn’t the only blueprint for Jordan's plotted international dominance. The actor also told the magazine he looks to Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Cruise for their acting chops and omnipresence.
In last month’s Vanity Fair, Jordan said actors like Smith and Denzel Washington paved the way for a new generation. “They broke down those barriers for us,” Jordan said. “Now it’s time for us to take what they did and take it to the next level.”
And now as one of GQ’s Men of the Year (Leader of the Year, specifically) Jordan makes it clear that through his work and the work of others, things are only getting better as actors of color, “because we're starting to realize our worth more and what we bring to the table.”
The environment is shifting from what Jordan faced early on in his career as a child model and later teen actor. “You feel like you're pitted against each other, in hindsight. I was like, ‘Damn! Everybody should be able to, like, work and grow and eat together,’” he says, before suggesting one solution. “I guess the only logical thing to do is to create more roles.”
This latest issue of GQ can now be added to the growing pile of thirst-trapping Michael Bae Jordan covers. Of course, no interview with the Black Panther villain would be complete without talk of his ever expanding muscles. "I wanted to be bigger than I was in the first Creed. More shredded than I was in Black Panther. I just wanted to see evolution,” he explains. “When I look at Creed now, I'm like, ‘I look like a kid.’ I look like a 20-year-old punk.”
And the cherry on top? He's totally single. “My career is awesome. It is going great. There's other places in my life that I'm fucking lacking at,” he says. “I'm very mature and advanced in a lot of areas of life. Dating may not be one of 'em. My personal life is not. I don't really know what dating is.”
The actor insists he’s focused on creating intergenerational wealth and building his empire before settling down, but there’s definitely still hope y’all. Read his entire GQ cover story here.
