Sinners has officially shattered a 75-year-old record for the most Academy Award nominations for a movie, earning 16 nominations including Best Picture, Director and Actor for Michael B. Jordan. The Ryan Coogler vampire drama beat the record of 14 nominations originally set by All About Eve” and tied by Titanic and La La Land.
Thanks to the new Achievement in Casting category the defining nomination went to Ruth E. Carter, . But it did one and shocking the industry when Delroy Lindo was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, beating out Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare in Hamnet. Ryan Coogler also earned his first nomination for directing, and Michael B. Jordan, now a Best Actor nominee.
To celebrate the Sinners cast and their Oscar nominations, The Koalition spoke to Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Jack O’Connell, Miles Caton, Delroy Lindo, Omar Miller and Li Jun LI.
“I’ve been blessed,” says Coogler, “where each time I’ve made a film, it’s become more and more personal. And with Sinners, I was really digging into two relationships. One with my maternal grandfather, whom I never met—he died about a year before I was born. He was from Merrill, Mississippi, and he eventually moved to Oakland, married my grandmother and actually built the house that our whole family is kinda based out of in Oakland. The other is my Uncle James, who I came up with my whole life. He actually passed away when I was in postproduction on Creed. He was from another time in Mississippi, and he wouldn’t really talk about it unless he was listening to the blues and he’d had a little sip of Old Taylor whiskey. Then, he’d reminisce. I miss him profoundly. And with this film, I got a chance to dig into my own ancestral history here in the States.”
Sinners also provides Coogler the opportunity to go full circle. As an original tale that takes place in a single day, it is the storytelling style that first put him on the map with his debut feature, Fruitvale Station; both were shot on film as well. It also pairs one of Coogler’s favorite genres with Michael B. Jordan… times two.
“Each time we’ve worked together, it feels like the challenge has gotten bigger and more and more ambitious,” says Coogler. “For this one, I have Mike playing two roles, who are identical twins. This was a big technical challenge for both of us, and it was really, really exciting to see Mike pull it off. There are subtle ways that he found to differentiate Smoke and Stack—it’s a brilliant performance. Like, both performances.”
One of Jordan’s first challenges in portraying Smoke and Stack became making the twin brothers distinct. “Certain catchphrases, a body position, or a stance is how I began establishing the twins,” the performer explains. “Smoke has a heaviness about him, and he doesn’t talk much. Stack is lighter and smiles through his pain.”
Jordan continued his character discovery through research, finding that with identical twins, one is often more dominant than the other. Smoke is definitely the “serious” brother. Jordan adds, “Smoke’s all business, and he really doesn’t value material things, or care about his appearance in the same way as his brother. Stack, on the other hand, really cares about the money, the jewelry, the rings, wearing a tailored suit… and always being dressed to the nines.” The actor further began to define the brothers through their clothes, collaborating with costume designer Carter, and breaking the script down beat by beat.
“Backstory is something that’s really important to actors, to me, so I built the backstory of what happened to them from their earliest memories. “What happened before page one of the script is always super important. Just really getting inside of the identical twin dynamic and what that means for brothers. I’ve had my dialect coach, Beth McGuire—she’s also a drama teacher—for years. She’s incredible. I first worked with her on Black Panther. She helped me with a lot of body movement, their physical posture and stand. They both stood differently, they walked a little bit differently—they held their trauma in different places. Just getting into all of the physicality really helped me feel confident and prepared. So, when I stepped on set, I could do that,” said Jordan
Jordan continued, “Then, we were just figuring out the process. Which twin goes first? In this scene, which brother has the most to do, the most agency or is driving the scene? One goes first because he sets the rules. When I flip to the other side, I can’t walk in the same space as the other. So, I had to create new blocking. Hats off to my castmates that had to deal with me [laughs]. One version, reading the scene; one with him having to flip on the other side and read that version; and giving us grace during that process for them, which was also an important part of this. Then there was music, the things that I needed to prep. Coming in in the morning, getting into one character’s body and mind, then a couple of minutes to come off of him and go into the other one.”
To learn more about Sinners, check out the full interview in the video above.
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