AN ORIGINAL VAMPIRE MOVIE LED BY MICHAEL B. JORDAN REVIVED THE BOX OFFICE

UNTIL RECENTLY, THE SINNERS STAR WAS LEFT OUT OF THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MOVIE STARDOM. NO ONE'S DOUBTING HIM NOW.

- By ZAK CHENEY-RICE

MICHAEL B. JORDAN GLIDED INTO THE WINE LIBRARY at his hotel seemingly unaware that, for a man who plays a vampire in his latest movie, the ambience he'd chosen was a little on the nose. It was a Monday afternoon in May, and outside, midtown Manhattan was a sunny 73 degrees, but our windowless meeting room shielded us from the light. As I scanned the bottles of red liquid lining the walls, a server shuffled in to ask Jordan if he would like something to drink. “You guys got a lemon-ginger tea?” he asked.

Jordan had just arrived from London, where he was in preproduction for a reboot of the romance caper The Thomas Crown Affair, a project he's been developing—first as a star and producer and now as the director at Amazon MGM Studios—for more than a decade. He'd also just wrapped up the promotional tour for Sinners, the hit $341 million-grossing vampire thriller that sparked countless think pieces about race, appropriation, and cunnilingus; the kind of culturally dominant movie discourse that hasn't been seen swirling around an original film since Jordan Peele's Get Out introduced “the Sunken Place” into the lexicon eight years ago.

When we met, Jordan looked and moved like an athlete at a postgame press conference, wearing a boxy T-shirt and roomy pants, neither of which could hide the bulk of his shoulders, the swell of his biceps, or the self-possession of his posture. The press tour for Sinners has taken him around the world; when I asked him which places he most likes to visit, he rattled off a comically nonspecific list: “Going to Mexico City, first, is always a great experience. They love movies. Atlanta is always a lot of fun as well. Brazil is another place.” He was courteous but reserved—he told me that sharing as little of himself as possible “creates a demand.”

Even though his partnership with Sinners