The ‘Sinners’ star triumphed at this year’s Actor Awards over Timothée Chalamet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke and Jesse Plemons
NEED TO KNOW
- Michael B. Jordan won the prize for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role at the March 1 Actor Awards (formerly the SAG Awards)
- Expressing surprise at his win, Jordan thanked his Sinners castmates and their writer-director Ryan Coogler
- “Thank you for welcoming me in and making me feel seen,” he said to his fellow actors
Michael B. Jordan is a winner for his twinning work in Sinners!
For his leading roles as Smoke and Stack Moore in Ryan Coogler's vampire horror hit, the 39-year-old actor-filmmaker earned an Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role at the March 1 ceremony.
Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty
“I don’t even know where to begin. I wasn’t expecting this at all,” said Jordan, taking the stage to raucous applause to accept the trophy from presenter Viola Davis.
He shouted out his fellow nominees in SAG-AFTRA’s lead actor category: Timothée Chalamet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke and Jesse Plemons. “I’m so honored and privileged to be nominated in categories with people and actors and humans that I love,” Jordan said. “This ride has been unbelievable. So thank you for welcoming me in and making me feel seen. And y’all know how I feel about y’all.”
Credit: Monica Schipper/WireImage
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The Black Panther star then recalled his early acting days and getting his SAG-AFTRA card — “that kid from Newark Jersey is standing here right now” — and thanked his mother Donna for driving him “back and forth to New York” for auditions. “We didn’t have enough money to go through the Holland Tunnel, we were looking for gas money, parking spaces.”
Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Jordan then thanked his longtime collaborator Coogler, 39, for “giving me the opportunity to show what I can do and to be fearless and to create a safe space for us to find the truth.” He shouted out fellow Sinners cast members Delroy Lindo, Wunmi Mosaku, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton and more — all of whom collectively later won the final Actor Award of the evening, for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
“Man, just being in this room right now with all these people who see me grow up in front of the camera and in these rooms, I feel the love and support that you’ve always given me and encouraged me to go on and do my best,” Jordan concluded. “So I just want to say thank you.”
For his work in Sinners, Jordan also earned nominations at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards and upcoming Academy Awards. At the Feb. 28 NAACP Image Awards, he was nominated in two categories and won the Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture as part of the Sinners cast.
See PEOPLE's full coverage of the 32nd annual Actor Awards Sunday, March 1 as they air live on Netflix.
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