Being cast in a superhero role in a major movie production is dream come true for many aspiring young actors. But, for Michael B. Jordan, the dream came with online trolls.
"You're not supposed to go on the Internet when you’re cast as a superhero," writes the black actor in a recent op-ed in Entertainment Weekly. He was recently cast in the new Fantastic Four movie as Johnny Storm -- a character originally written as a blond-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian.
But he did.
"Turns out this is what they were saying: 'A black guy? I don't like it. They must be doing it because Obama's president'," he writes. Other commenters said, "It's not true to the comic" and "They've destroyed it!"
"I can see everybody’s perspective, and I know I can’t ask the audience to forget 50 years of comic books," he continues. "But the world is a little more diverse in 2015 than when the Fantastic Four comic first came out in 1961."
Jordan rejects some people's suggestion that the decision of his casting is "political correctness or an attempt to meet a racial quota, or as part of the year of 'Black film.'"
Instead, he encourages people to look at the film as a "creative choice by the director, Josh Track" and "a reflection of what a modern family looks like."
"This is a family movie about four friends—two of whom are myself and Kate Mara as my adopted sister—who are brought together by a series of unfortunate events to create unity and a team," he writes.
Check out the rest of his op-ed here.
