Everything that I’ve been through—everything that I’ve been taught, all the successes that I’ve had, all the failures that I’ve had, all the wisdom t… - Michael B. Jordan

Growing up on set, in the industry, over 20 years, and starting out doing background work and extra work and just seeing the sets evolve and seeing everybody’s job and seeing how a real production took place, I finally got to this place in my career where I wanted to tell a story and not just be in front of the camera to execute somebody else’s vision.

For all the success that I’ve had, there’s going to be negative reactions and opinions thrown at me. That just comes with it. When you’re younger, you’re just frustrated, but when you start to realize that this is what it is, you start to understand. I’m never going to make everybody happy. People are always going to have their opinions about me. People can make up something completely false that has no fucking substance or anything, and there’s going to be 100,000 people that are going to believe it and that’s going to be their opinion of me. I can’t do anything about that, and I’ve just got to accept that and keep moving in my purpose. People that know me know my heart. But people that know me for my work . . . they know what I allow them to know. The fact that I’ve been so closed off about a lot of parts of my life was a personal choice. As I’ve gotten older and a little more mature and comfortable in my own skin, I’ve become less concerned about it.

There are a lot of roles and auditions that call for someone my age. The young people are taking over. They are really coming up the acting industry. There are lots of roles out there but you have to have the right people and the right connections to get called for auditions. You sometimes have to be in the right place at the right time. At the same time, you don’t always have to be in “the business” to get a good break. There are outstanding breakthroughs and “unheard of” actors doing great jobs. You don’t need the connections, but it helps.