Jonathan Majors on why he didn’t ask Michael B. Jordan for advice on playing a Marvel villain

‘You could very quickly lose a friend throwing out acting advice — especially if that friend is me,’ the Kang actor says when asked if he sought out MCU villain tips from his Creed III costar.

When Creed III hit theaters this past weekend, it was the second time in as many months that Jonathan Majors portrayed a big-screen antagonist. Just before stepping into the ring as Damian Anderson, Majors became the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s new villain-to-beat, Kang the Conqueror, in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

A noteworthy coincidence here is that Michael B. Jordan, who stands opposite Majors in Creed III, also previously played an MCU villain. As seen in Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Jordan’s Killmonger remains one of the most popular antagonists in the Marvel movie franchise.

But when EW recently asked Majors if he received any tips from Jordan about portraying a comic-book villain on the big screen, his answer was a flat denial.

“Every Marvel film is different, and every character is different,” Majors tells EW. “And ultimately, what we do as artists is an extremely personal venture. We’re all doing it for different reasons. So, you could very quickly lose a friend throwing out acting advice — especially if that friend is me.”

Nevertheless, Majors says there were some benefits to his and Jordan’s shared experience in the MCU.

“We each had so much respect for our journeys up until this point,” Majors says. “The cool part is we can talk about the secrets with each other. If he knows something and I know something, there’s something we can share and feel like we’re not alone in the secrets that we’re holding. Or maybe there’s a poster that’s coming out soon that I get to see or something like that.”

Creed III is in theaters now.

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