I love telling the experience of a black male in America, but modern, not always having to go back to a period piece to remind people where we come from. It's more a modern sense of where we are today and where we want to go in the future. So I try to choose projects somewhere around that space.

Michael B. Jordan

I'm a tropical weather cruiser. I like surfing, you know. I like being on the beach.

Michael B. Jordan

surfing weather beach

Sometimes you gotta go with your first instinct. You gotta go with your gut. That's kind of how I live my life, you gotta go with your gut.

Michael B. Jordan

kind sometimes firsts

Do as much homework as you can. Learn everybody's job and don't just settle.

Michael B. Jordan

homework settling jobs

What I was interested in [Fruitvale Station ] was one guy and his life and how that related to all of our lives and the fact that it ended unnecessarily and what the fallout from that was.

Michael B. Jordan

fallouts guy facts

I'm definitely a lover, but I fight when I have to - for something or someone.

Michael B. Jordan

fighting lovers

Don't pretend to know everything. I've been blessed to work with a lot of veteran actors, and I soak up lessons from them like a sponge.

Michael B. Jordan

lessons actors blessed

Sometimes you're overthinking, you convince yourself to get out of it and you're like, "Ah I shoulda did that!" You can't live life with regrets. Sometimes you just gotta indulge. But in the same breath, you gotta have restraint and self-control too.

Michael B. Jordan

live-life regret self

For me the movie [Fruitvale Station ] wasn't about that. The movie's about [Oscar Grant] life. And what happens on the platform is a very short part of the film. It's from Oscar's perspective. From the perspectives of the relationships that he's involved with.

Michael B. Jordan

oscars perspective film

As human beings, why does it take somebody to feel like they're close to us for us to see their humanity? Why can't we see the humanity in people that are distant from us?

Michael B. Jordan

humanity doe people

Sometimes family doesn't always consist of your relatives or by blood. Sometimes your best friends can feel more like family than your cousins. I think everybody kind of has that same feeling. When you go through an accident together, when you go through a traumatic event, sometimes that brings you closer together.

Michael B. Jordan

cousin blood thinking

Just us as people, we're different around different people and in different environments.

Michael B. Jordan

environment different people

How are people who are young and look like Oscar [Grant] portrayed in the media? You gotta think about that. And somebody given a badge and a gun and told to go police in those communities, all of a sudden they got to protect and serve and talk to people they never even spent time with [and] they might have formed opinions about.

Michael B. Jordan

protect-and-serve gun thinking

You know, you can try and plan [filming] as much as you want, but you get there on game day and you get thrown a curve ball, I guess, hey, the game plan goes out the window. You've got to adapt.

Michael B. Jordan

curves games trying

I think everybody wants to be their own person and be an individual.

Michael B. Jordan

individual want thinking

I've never been the kind of guy to hype myself up. It's just not my thing.

Michael B. Jordan

hype guy kind

I'm pretty sure that wasn't Oscar's first time getting harassed or held-up by authorities. And over time you start to feel some type of way when you get pulled over. "Oh, I gotta go through this. Again."

Michael B. Jordan

oscars way firsts

As an actor, you always dream of having material that showcases what you can do.

Michael B. Jordan

showcase actors dream

L.A. is cool. If I could have the rest of my family out there, I think it would make it that much better for me. As far as work and the weather, you can't really beat it. I just wish they had the New York social life out there. That would make it perfect.

Michael B. Jordan

new-york weather thinking

I encourage first time filmmakers to be ambitious and take chances and risks, because you never know where your career is going to go.

Michael B. Jordan

ambitious risk careers

[Kyle Chandler]definitely helped me out a lot, stepped up my game. Just like the volleying back and forth.

Michael B. Jordan

back-and-forth games