“Erik didn’t really know a lot of love. I think Erik didn’t experience that,” Michael explained. “He had a lot of betrayal, a lot of failed systems around him that shaped him and his anger and his frustration. And looking at history and how it would seem to always repeat itself, and how was he going to break that cycle.”
Though he nailed Killmonger’s nuanced view of the world—and ultimately, his relationship with Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa—Michael recognized he was still living in his character’s mindset after the film’s release.
“I think that spiraled into a bigger conversation and self-discovery of, ‘Okay, I think that’s something that’s necessary for people.’ Especially men,” he noted of thoughts after he started therapy. “I think it’s good for them to go and talk. That’s something I’m not ashamed of at all, and very proud of.”
