Michael B. Jordan says journaling helps him prepare for his roles

Michael B. Jordan says he prepares for his acting roles by journaling, writing as his characters to better understand their mindset and emotions. He won the Oscar for best actor for his performance in "Sinners." "I write a lot of journals for my characters, like backstories.

So I try to go from, like, the earliest memory that I can conjure up and think of, and I write all the way up to the first page of the script," Jordan said, a process he uses to figure out where a character is coming from and what informs their decisions. For his dual roles as twins Stack and Smoke, he combined those journals with what he called "a lot of chakra work" to unpack childhood trauma and create distinct portrayals.

In his words, "Smoke is a bit more, you know, he's quiet, he's a protector, and Stack is a little bit more light and buoyant, and a little bit of a slick talker and a troublemaker," and he built details like how often they argued or kept score to let nuances emerge between them.

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