Black or white? The role doesn't matter to Michael B. Jordan

Michael B. Jordan is taking your white men's roles.

That's right, the 28-year-old actor doesn't care about what race the role was originally written for. To Jordan, that doesn't matter, as long as it's a good script (he'll get back to you on Fantastic Four). But while race can be incredibly important in shaping a character's life, it's also the white roles that are getting the bigger movies. And Jordan, who is gearing up for the release of Creed in November, is ready to go big. He told GQ:

“I want to be part of that movement that blurs the line between white and black. I told my team after I finished 'Chronicle' that I only want to go out for roles that were written for white characters. Me playing the role will make it what it is.”

Jordan has certainly had his fill of playing black characters on whose shoulders their black-ness is a heavy burden. His turn as Oscar Grant, the real-life 22-year-old who was inexplicably shot dead by a transit cop, in Fruitvale Station won him critical acclaim. He was in The Wire, Friday Night Lights. But Jordan says that with those roles, he carries a sort of duty to the African-American community.

"You know, for my community, the African-American community, there was a certain expectation. You do a role that represents African-Americans, of Oscar Grant being wrongfully accused, wrongfully killed by the police, it’s a certain expectation comes with it to be the one to speak out.”

Now, he wants to go in a different direction. He cites Leonardo DiCaprio and Ryan Gosling as two of his idols.

“(DiCaprio and Gosling) made smart choices. They played people, not being ‘a white actor playing a person,’ them playing a person. When I play a person or profession, it’s black this, black that. It’s obvious that I’m black, but why do I have to be labeled as that? Instead of taking something conceptually written for a black guy, I want the stuff that was written for a guy.”