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Michael B. Jordan opened up about having the same name as basketball legend Michael Jordan
Jordan said that he got "teased so much" about it that he almost changed his name
Now, the 'Sinners' star thinks his name helped him reach for greatness
Michael B. Jordanhad to grow into his name.
In a Jan. 4 interview onCBS Sunday Morning, Jordan, 38, opened up about his life and career. CBS correspondent Tracy Smith asked theSinnersstar if it was a "problem" growing up to have the same name as Chicago Bulls legendMichael Jordan.
"Big time!" theCreedstar said. "I got teased so much, to the point where I almost changed my name."
His initial plan was to lean on his middle name, Bakari. "It definitely made me want to be competitive and be good at – I wanted to be great at something, if not for nothing else at that time just to, like, feel like I had my own identity," he explained.
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Looking back, he said, having the same name as the NBA Hall of Famer "was a part of the alchemy that made me who I am today."
Smith noted that the name Bakari means "noble promise" in Swahili and asked if Jordan feels he's lived up to that name.
"I feel like I'm walking in that and will continue to do so, big time," he said. "We got a lot more things to do, you know? We're just getting started."
Jordan was named forhis father, Michael A. Jordan. He noted duringhisVariety's Actors on Actorsconversation this December that his dad is older than theSpace Jamstar.
Jordan's career began as a child model before he transitioned into acting roles. His breakout role was asWallace onThe Wirein 2002, and thenhe joinedAll My Childrenin 2003 as Reggie Porter Montgomery. From 2009 to 2011, he starred onFriday Night Lightsas Vince Howard. Then in 2013, he received critical acclaim for his performance inFruitvale Station, directed by his now-frequent collaborator Ryan Coogler. He's since starred inBlack Panther,theCreedfilmsand2025'sSinners, which is garnering him major Oscar buzz.
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Back in November,Jordan opened up to PEOPLEabout how his soap opera past helped bring him to the next phase of his career. He said that "my time that I spent on soap operas" has ended up being one of the biggest surprises of his career.
"I never knew how many casting directors and executives in Hollywood would tell me, 'Oh man, my wife really loves you.' Or like, 'Oh, she watches you all the time on the stories… Come in for this and read for that,' " he said.
He explained, "It opened up so many doors in the most unexpected places for me, and that was... I think looking back at it, that was something that definitely caught me off guard. I didn't expect that one. So that andThe Wirewere the two projects that really opened up a lot of doors for me in that sense."
Jordan also said the intense production timeline of soap operas helped shape how he works. "I think soap operas, we're doing a hundred-plus pages a day," he said. "The work ethic, the grind of that definitely gave me a built-in work ethic and helped me refine that discipline at an early age. Yeah, definitely."
Read the original article onPeople
