Michael B Jordan reveals key career advice Denzel Washington gave him

Michael B Jordan revealed that he still followed a piece of advice that Denzel Washington gave him about staying private.

The actor told New York magazine the reason he shared as little as possible of himself on social media or to the press was that it “creates a demand”.

He said that Washington, whom he regards as an inspiration, had given him career advice to prevent overexposure. “Why would they pay to see you on a weekend if they see you all week for free?” he recalled the veteran actor telling him.

They starred together in A Journal for Jordan, which Washington directed, in 2021.

Jordan is coming fresh off the success of Sinners in which he plays twin brothers Smoke and Stack who return to their Mississippi hometown to start over, only to learn that a great evil is waiting for them.

The actor said he was “really, really, really unsure of what my career was going to be” before he met Sinners director Ryan Coogler, with whom he would collaborate on multiple projects. “Am I a TV actor? Where am I going? And I was like, Man, I just want an independent film. I can show what I can do, and I just need to know if I could carry a film or not, if I could be a lead.”

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Jordan went on to work with Coogler on his directorial debut in 2013’s Fruitvale Station, followed by Creed in 2015, Black Panther in 2018, and, most recently, Sinners in 2025.

“He told me he thought I was a movie star,” Jordan said, describing his first meeting with the filmmaker. “He thought I was a great actor, and he wanted to show the rest of the world that, and he wanted to make the movie with me.”

The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey praised Jordan’s “movie-star charisma” in a four-star review of Sinners. “Coogler intertwines song and the supernatural, linking West African traditions with the legendary claim that bluesman Robert Johnson acquired his talents when he sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads,” she said.

“These ideas climax in a spectacular sequence in which Sinners briefly escapes its reality to draw a visual line between the past and present of Black music. Its opening monologue speaks of music’s ability to ‘pierce the veil between life and death’. Sinners, in all its beauty and horror, proves the same can be true of film.”

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In February, Jordan had said he was “proud” of Jonathan Majors after his Creed III co-star was charged with assaulting his former girlfriend.

“I’m proud of his resilience and his strength through it all, and his handling of it. I’m glad he’s good,” Jordan told GQ, adding that he would work with Majors in the future.

Asked how he would convince a crew member to work with Majors, he said: “To be brutally honest, I haven’t even thought about it yet, man. The energy to thoughtfully break that down – yeah, I can’t give that right now.”