Michael B. Jordan opened up to Jesse Plemons on Variety’s Actors on Actors about the challenge of sharing a name with basketball icon Michael Jordan. Growing up, he said it gave him a “healthy chip on [his] shoulder,” pushing him to hustle harder and stake his own claim.
Michael B. Jordan reflects on growing up as “Michael B.”
Jordan shared that having the same name as the legendary athlete added an early competitive edge to his life. He explained that a name shapes how the world sees you, and sharing it with the basketball legend gave him a healthy chip on his shoulder. That drive pushed him to carve out his own path to greatness, even if it wasn’t immediately obvious which field he would excel in.
“Your name is important. It’s how you introduce yourself and how the world responds to you. But when there’s another guy out there who’s the guy, I think it created a healthy chip [on my shoulder]. Wanting to be competitive. Wanting your own identity in a way. I wanted to be great at something, and I didn’t know what it was going to be. I just wanted to be great at it.” ( via Variety)
Jordan reflected on how his parents were his grounding force while growing up in the shadow of a famous namesake. He recalled with a laugh that his dad, also named Michael Jordan, was probably around the same age as the basketball legend at the time. He explained that the experience was “meant to be.”
Michael B. Jordan and Jesse Plemons also threw it back to their early days on Friday Night Lights. Jordan, one of the younger cast members back then, admitted he felt like a fish out of water at first. “Everybody had such a great relationship, and like the new kid going into a new school, you felt like the outsider. But at that first cast dinner where everybody introduced themselves and welcomed us into the team, all that washed away,” Jordan said.
