-Michael B. Jordan! -Man, I love coming here, man.
I love it. -Come on. You feel that...
[ Cheers and applause ] You feel that love?!
Do you feel it? Come on.
-I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it.
-They love you, buddy. -I love coming here, man.
This is a great, great spot, man.
-Well, we love having you here.
You're hosting "Saturday Night Live."
-Yes, sir. -How's it going, bud?
-It's going great.
I literally just left, you know, rehearsal just now,
going through the blocking and stuff like that.
And it's a machine.
And they are so fantastic and great at what they do.
It's been a great process.
-Can you talk to me about the pillow?
-Oh, yeah, the pillow.
Okay, so, I walk into the office.
And they're like, "Alright, this might be weird.
This might be a little weird.
We actually have been living with you
for the last 10 years."
I said, "Living with me the last 10 years?
What are you talking about?"
They're just like, "Well --" It was one of the producer's
birthday, and it was -- one of the other employees
there got her a pillow, right?
And it was a life-sized, almost like a pregnancy pillow
of me printed on both sides.
And I'm like, "Wait. You guys had this for how long?"
It's been there for 10 years. It's been there for a decade.
-You brought us a photo. -I got a photo of it.
And I'm like, "Wait a second."
[ Cheers and applause ]
So, I'm like, "So, wait, wait, wait."
I said, "Whose pillow is that?"
And, you know, the lady was like, "Oh, it's mine."
And she was like, "Listen, our hours here are so crazy,
everybody takes naps, you know, at some point during the day."
-Of course. -I was like, "So wait.
Every lady in here has slept with me at some point
over the last 10 years?"
-That's exactly right. -And they were like,
"Yes, actually, everybody has, at one point."
-That's exactly right. Yeah, why not?
-That was cool.
-I've got to say,
"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" came out.
There were rumors -- [ Cheers and applause ]
It was fantastic. -Thank you, thank you.
-There was rumors, are you going to be in it?
Are you not going to be in it?
And when I saw you in interviews, you were like,
"I am not in this at all."
If you have seen it or plan on seeing it,
maybe just mute your TV for a second.
You are in it. -Yeah, I am in it.
[ Cheers and applause ] -And it was great.
-Thank you, thank you. -It was awesome.
How hard is it to keep that secret?
-It's tough, you know?
I think, this time around, you know,
because we lost our brother Chadwick, you know --
Rest in peace to Chadwick Boseman.
And it was so much weight and so much just
trying to power through, you know?
And Ryan Coogler had such, you know,
a tremendous task in front of him to evolve the script
and the story in a way that still kind of honored Chadwick,
but move the franchise forward, as well.
So for me to be able to come back, you know,
and I had to really keep it under wraps, you know?
I had to grow my hair out.
You know, I got the locks back in and stuff like that.
And, you know, I'm traveling a lot of places,
so I've got to, you know, wear a hat, a hoodie, you know,
fly private, which isn't too bad of a thing.
But being able to keep it under wraps was really a tough thing.
-Were you doing "Creed III" at the same time?
-Yeah, we were both shooting down in Atlanta
at the same time.
So that made it a little bit easier
to be able to bounce around from studios.
But it was a hard thing to keep under wraps.
-How do you do -- First of all, you're not only starring in
"Creed III," you produced it,and this is -- you directed it.
-Mm-hmm. -This is your directorial debut.
-Yeah, yeah.
-You crushed it. -Thank you.
-You crushed it, buddy. -Thank you, man, thank you.
-How do you like directing yourself?
-I love it. You know, it's --
-You get along with yourself? -Yeah, just a little bit.
-I mean, the lead actor's a bit of an ass[bleep]
but, you know, it's cool, you know?
You know, we got through it.
-Eventually, you got the performance out of him, yeah.
What's it like directing with gloves on?
-It's tough.
You know, you're -- You know,
you've got a mouthpiece in sometimes.
You got gloves.
You're always depending on so many people.
Your team is everything, you know?
So, to be able to be in the middle of a boxing scene,
honestly, it's sometimes easier, because I can direct
while I'm acting.
You know, if I needed to move you upstage a little bit,
I just move a little bit like this
and then I get the shot that I need,
'cause I'm already -- I'm kind of I'm low-key cheating,
'cause I'm, like, editing while I'm actually acting
a little bit.
-Yeah, all of a sudden, you just start moving around the scene.
Wow, yeah, you're finding your light.
-So, it's -- Yeah, so it was fun. It was fun.
-Did you get to talk to any other directors beforehand?
-Reached out to a lot of directors.
You know, I'm blessed to have, you know,
Denzel Washington, Ryan Coogler, Steven Caple, Jon Favreau,
Bradley Cooper, you know?
Like, I reached out to, like, the community of directors,
and everybody gave me great advice.
And one of the greatest advices I got was from
Bradley Cooper and Jon Favreau.
They was basically like, "Get your first shot off
as quickly as possible."
Like, it's one of the -- it's one of the --
It can slow down your entire day.
You know, if you don't get that first shot off very early,
you're probably not going to make your day.
So as soon as you get it off, the train is rolling
and the machine just won't stop, so you'll more than likely
get more shots than you --
-I love that advice. -Yeah.
-That's good. -Thank you.
-You know, I watch these movies and I go,
"There's no way they can make the shots
look different in a boxing ring."
You did it again.
-Thank you, thank you, thank you.
-It's something else -- It feels like you're in the ring.
Like, I've never -- Again, I've seen, you know,
the "Rockys," I've seen the "Creeds."
But what was the -- This thing was, like -- It's insane.
You actually see skin flapping and blob.
I go -- How did you change the game again?
-We were just -- You know, I think I got --
It was a gift and a curse, you know?
There's been, you know, eight other movies before me,
you know?
And we've shot -- You can shoot a boxing match
so many different ways.
I think 'cause I was kind of put in a corner,
it kind of forced me to be more creative and really find --
like, think outside the box of how to make
the fights different.
So we shot all the fights in IMAX.
And, also, I had a huge Japanese anime influence
on a lot of my fighters.
I'm an anime nerd, so... [ Cheers and applause ]
I found unique ways to kind of -- Exactly.
Yeah, you -- -And then -- Dude, it was --
-The thing and the thing? Okay, alright.
-Yeah. But I watched as a fan. I'm just enjoying.
You put the work in, man. -Yes, sir.
-I was like, "Oh, it was great."
Jonathan Majors, by the way, is who you go up against.
-Ooh! [ Cheers and applause ]
-Dude... -My brother is incredible, man.
-Dude is jacked in this movie. -Yes, he is.
-Both of you guys are. -My man's in shape.
I thought, you -- I go, "Oh, my God.
That's Michael B. Jordan."
Then he shows -- Get ready, 'cause he shows up,
and I'm like, "Wow!"
-He is in the most insane shape that I've ever seen.
And we needed somebody that was going to be, you know,
an antagonist, but somebody intimidating.
We wanted to make Adonis feel like an underdog.
So when you see Jonathan Majors,
he looks like he can beat the crap out of whoever.
-Yeah. -Uh-huh.
-Yeah, and he plays it perfectly,
'cause you feel for him and then you don't.
Then you -- He's a punk. -You know, I mean --
-Then you're like, I want you to win, you know?
-I think it's more interesting to have, like,
an antagonist that has depth to him.
Like, he's not just a, you know, twirl the mustache,
"Ha, ha, I'm a bad guy."
-Yeah, exactly, yeah.
-You've got to understand, you know, why he is the way he is.
-It was well done. -Thank you.
-How do we set this up, "Creed III"?
-"Creed III."
I think it's about, you know,
you can't really outrun your past.
You know, you have to kind of like, look inward to,
you know, to -- And you have to face your demons
in order to move forward in life.
You know, you can't just keep moving forward
without actually reflecting.
I think, you know, childhood trauma,
those transformative years, things that you've been through,
you have to face those things in order to
have the courage to move forward to do new things.
And I think that's a big part of our film.
-And Adonis Creed sees someone from his past that was --
It was one of his old buddies.
And he just returns and he is trouble, man.
-He's trouble. -He's trouble.
-He turns Adonis' world upside down,
and he has to kind of move backwards to move forward.
-Checkmate. -My man.
-You know what I'm saying? -Ooh! Checkmate.
-You know what I'm saying? I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Michael B. Jordan in "Creed III."
Take a look at this.
-Hey, my man.
Can I help you?
-Let me get an autograph?
-No, I ain't signing no autographs,
but you get off of my car.
-Old homie.
You don't remember me, huh?
Come a long way from bummin' rides from your mom.
-Dame.
Whew! Boy, you had -- you had -- you had me.
-[ Laughs ]
-Damian.
-Yeah, just got back to the hood.
Stopped by the old gym, but, uh --
-Yeah, we upgraded a couple years ago.
-I see.
-Damn, it's -- it's, uh --
-It's been a minute.
-Been a minute.
-Whoo! -Yes.
[ Cheers and applause ] Michael B. Jordan!
"Creed III" is in theaters and IMAX March 3rd.
Michael is hosting "Saturday Night Live"
this weekend with musical guest Lil Baby.
We'll be right back with more "Tonight Show," everybody.
Come on back.