I don't like speaking on things that I don't care about and that I'm not personally invested in.
Acting for me sometimes is taking whatever personal experiences I have and try to apply that [to a role].
Creating the opportunities for other people and solid projects, things that I like, for sure, definitely. Acting I'll do forever, but I want to produce as well.
I haven't been down to Navy Pier in such a long time. I know that's probably the touristy thing to do, but it just reminds me so much of 2000 when I was here shooting ["Hardball"].
Being compared to that man [Michael Jordan], who has accomplished so much in his lifetime and is known as one of the greatest ever, is an amazing compliment, but I still want to be looked at as an individual and have my own lane and my own career and looked at as "That's Mike." "That' s Michael B."
For me, with me, making a film is always about humanity.
[Kyle Chandler]definitely helped me out a lot, stepped up my game. Just like the volleying back and forth.
Start producing, some writing, directing is definitely what I want to do and I'll be doing a lot more in the future as well.
What I was interested in [Fruitvale Station ] was one guy and his life and how that related to all of our lives and the fact that it ended unnecessarily and what the fallout from that was.
I think Chris [Evans] has got Captain America locked up. The role is in good hands.
I'm pretty sure that wasn't Oscar's first time getting harassed or held-up by authorities. And over time you start to feel some type of way when you get pulled over. "Oh, I gotta go through this. Again."
You see somebody like me, as young as I was at the time, driving around the inner city of Newark, and to them [police] it doesn't make sense. I've been illegally searched [and had] my car illegally searched. [I've] been handcuffed for no reason. You get in enough of those situations.
For me the movie [Fruitvale Station ] wasn't about that. The movie's about [Oscar Grant] life. And what happens on the platform is a very short part of the film. It's from Oscar's perspective. From the perspectives of the relationships that he's involved with.
If somebody comes up and they're African American as Mike is, and they're extremely talented as Mike is, they say, "Oh, yeah, he's the next ..." I think that it points to disparity.
How are people who are young and look like Oscar [Grant] portrayed in the media? You gotta think about that. And somebody given a badge and a gun and told to go police in those communities, all of a sudden they got to protect and serve and talk to people they never even spent time with [and] they might have formed opinions about.
I've been living with that all my life. My name is Michael Jordan, so I'm always being compared to a person of greatness.
I'm an athlete; I've got an ego when stunt doubles have to come in. Not an ego like that, but when it comes to physical stuff, if I didn't have to have a stunt double, I would always probably do it myself unless the producers were jumping in and stopping me.
Never played football, but I'm an athlete. I'm a competitor.
I love sports. I've played basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, track and field growing up.
To the trolls on the internet, I want to say: Get your head out of the computer. Go outside and walk around. Look at the people walking next to you. Look at your friends' friends and who they're interacting with. And just understand this is the world we live in. It's okay to like it.
I think everyone starts in the mailroom at some point! It's a right of passage. Your boss has to throw something at you and order you around for at least two years.
I want the scripts Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't have time for. Joseph Gordon-Levitt isn't available? Call me.
I want people to leave the theater and think, "How can I be a better person?" That's the only way things are going to improve.
Watching a really good movie excites me, because it makes we want to get up off the couch and go shoot something and act in a scene. And music excites me because it puts me in a mind state, whatever that may be.
Be collaborative. I've had some of my best experiences with directors who were able to sit down and have a conversation and ask me what I thought.
