'Sinners' Interview: Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan

Moviefone speaks with Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan about 'Sinners'. "The biggest theme was freedom and how sometimes it can't be bought," Coogler said.

(L to R) Director Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan talk 'Sinners'.

Currently available to watch on HBO Max and a serious contender in this upcoming awards season is the box office smash hit ‘Sinners’ which was written and directed by Ryan Coogler (‘Black Panther’) and stars Michael B. Jordan (‘Creed’) playing the dual roles of twin brothers Smoke and Stack.

Sinners

"Dance with the devil."

RHorror Action Thriller

Review
Score

Release Date: Apr 18, 2025

Run Time: 2 hr 18 min

Budget: $90,000,000

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton

Watch Sinners Online

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of sitting down in-person with director Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan to talk about their work on ‘Sinners’, why Coogler was passionate about making this movie and the themes he wanted to explore, while Jordan discussed his approach to playing the Moore brothers and how he made the two roles distinctively different.

Related Article: Movie Review: 'Sinners'

(L to R) Delroy Lindo, Michael B. Jordan and director Ryan Coogler in Warner Bros. Pictures’ Sinners' a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Moviefone: To begin with, Ryan, can you talk about why you were so passionate about making this movie and the themes you wanted to explore as a filmmaker?

Ryan Coogler: It started with my relationship with my uncle James, who was born in Mississippi, lived there until he was 20, and then moved to Oakland and married my great-aunt, Sammy Lee, who the character Sammy is named after. It was important for me to explore blues music, Mississippi, the Delta Blues and juke joint culture because it was so important to my uncle. It's kind of passed down to me, and I wanted to do a deep dive on why that music was so important really to a global popular culture. But I also wanted to infuse it with everything in cinema that I loved that I hadn't had a chance to do yet in my previous films. That's where the supernatural and the genre elements come to play. As far as the themes, the biggest theme was freedom. You know what I mean? This idea of it, how elusive it can be, how sometimes it can't be bought. That was the central concept of freedom in these people that are under such great oppression and having to be able to affirm that humanity in a place and a time when it was very difficult.

Michael B. Jordan as Smoke and Stack in Warner Bros. Pictures’ 'Sinners,' a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

MF: Finally, Michael, can you talk about the challenges of playing twin brothers and how you were able to make those two characters so distinctively different?

Michael B. Jordan: There were so many challenges. There's been versions of twins that have been done, and some better than others, and trying to figure out how to make this one a memorable one or just make it work and feel honest. I remember as a kid watching movies like ‘The Parent Trap’, you know what I'm saying? Just as a kid, your imagination, whether you're pretending you got superpowers or pretending this or whatever, the idea of like, man, if I had a twin, what would I do? Or how would that be? I think being able to imagine that because Smoke and Stack are the same, but they're completely different. They make up one person. Having Smoke and how he handles his childhood trauma was important and Stack and how he handles his childhood trauma. They had the same experiences, but they have two different perspectives on it. For Smoke, he internalizes a lot of his. He doesn't talk a lot. He doesn't want to talk about his pain. He wants to bury it deep and kind of hold onto to that. I know people like that. So, to be able to tap into that in a real way. But Stack is different. He smiles and uses his charm, and he talks his way through his pain because he can't dwell on it for too long. So, to tap into your childhood trauma and building those characters from the ground up was crucial to build that foundation for me to do the rest of the work and the other things, the layers on top of that like wearing a shoe that is too small for Stack because he's always moving around. He just never really standing still. As a performer, as an actor, it's something that I didn't have to think about, but it helped me be agitated in times and physically be not still. But also, I wore a size too big when it came to Smoke because I wanted him to feel like he couldn't move a lot and he wanted to be rooted and implanted into the ground. So those were layers to it. The different grill caps that I wore, when I had a certain gold front in, it changed the way I would hold my mouth and speak and my cadence. Smoke spoke few words and slow. Stack was a fast talker, so he was always smiling, always wheeling and always dealing. He’s always selling something. Those are some of the things that I tapped into to kind of help make them a bit different. Just the storytelling, the other characters around Smoke and Stack that allowed me to play off of with Annie and Mary and those dynamics and just a rich world that was created for these characters to blend into.

Warner Bros. Pictures’ 'Sinners,' a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What is the plot of ‘Sinners’?

Two brothers (Michael B. Jordan) return to Clarksdale, Mississippi, in 1932, now wealthy and intent on opening a juke joint in their hometown. But as they open the doors of their new establishment, sinister forces begin to converge upon them and their community.

Who is in the cast of ‘Sinners’?

Michael B. Jordan as Smoke and Stack Moore
Hailee Steinfeld as Mary
Miles Caton as Sam Moore
Jack O'Connell as Remmick
Wunmi Mosaku as Annie
Jayme Lawson as Pearline
Omar Benson Miller as Cornbread
Li Jun Li as Grace Chow
Delroy Lindo as Delta Slim

(L to R) Michael B. Jordan and director Ryan Coogler in Warner Bros. Pictures’ 'Sinners' a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Eli Adé. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.