Michael B. Jordan on ‘Sinners,’ ‘Thomas Crown Affair’ and ‘Creed IV’

After a year away from American soil, directing “The Thomas Crown Affair” in London, Michael B. Jordan is back — and he’s getting back into the swing of things.

In Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” set in 1930s Jim Crow-era Mississippi, Jordan plays twin brothers navigating a world where survival and ambition collide with supernatural forces. It’s a role that demanded everything from the actor and showcased depths we haven’t seen before.

“I think his level of detail and personalization and specificity that he tends to create, along with the empathy that goes into his work and his art, I think is what is food for the soul,” Jordan says of his longtime collaborator. The two have built one of modern cinema’s most consistent actor-director partnerships, from “Fruitvale Station” to “Black Panther” to the “Creed” franchise. But “Sinners” represents something different. It’s a creative swing that asked Jordan to stretch in ways he never has before.

The project came to him through Coogler’s personal connection to the material, rooted in the director’s relationship with his Uncle James and blues music. What struck Jordan immediately was how this felt like Coogler doing something purely for himself after years of franchise filmmaking. “I felt like he wanted to do something for him fully, and I felt that passion, and it made me excited about it,” Jordan recalls.

Playing twins wasn’t just a technical challenge — it was an opportunity to explore two fully developed men, not boys becoming men, but characters who knew exactly who they were. “These guys identify themselves as who they are. They’re not changing,” Jordan explains. “So I was really excited at getting that opportunity to be like, some feel really adult, feel very grown.”

The shoot in Louisiana proved to be Jordan’s most demanding work yet. Fresh off directing “Creed III,” he had to silence the producer and…