An incredible bond. Starring in the most prominent boxing movies of the past generation, many moviegoers might be stumped by the question of if Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson are dating IRL because their on-screen chemistry is so believable.
Michael B. Jordan stars in the Creed series as Adonis Creed, the illegitimate son of Rocky Balboa’s former rival-turned-friend Apollo Creed. He’s introduced to Bianca, an aspiring singer-songwriter who has hearing loss. Throughout the three movies, their relationship develops and they end up marrying and having a daughter together—though there were many trials and tribulations that tagged along with the rising career of the boxer and musician. With their relationship onscreen, did the actor’s date in real life?
Read more below to see if Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson are really dating.
Are Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson dating?
Image: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Warner Bros.
Are Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson dating? No, the two actors are not dating. Michael B. Jordan is currently single (though sources say that he might be dating a British model), and Tessa Thompson is very elusive about her relationships. She told Refinery29, in an article published on March 6, 2023, that there are a lot of misconceptions about her “dating life.”
In the same interview with Refinery 29, the Thor: Love and Thunder actress revealed that their character’s growth in Creed III kind of reflected their real-life growth. They even went to couple’s therapy in character and it gave them some useful tips for their real-life relationships. “We realized how much we’ve grown over the course of making these films. And I think a lot of our growth is also parallel to the growth of the characters,” Tessa observed of her and Michael. “We are both parents in this film, not parents in real life. But I think in terms of the kind of conversations that we’re having together and separately around legacy, both Bianca and Adonis have transitioned out of their careers as they once knew their careers and they are now business owners. Bianca’s producing music. Mike’s character has his own gym and is looking after fighters and trying to think of the next generation of people inside of his sport,” she said. “I think Mike and I are doing that in so many ways. We both have our production companies. We’re producing in earnest and really thinking about what our contribution is — not just to culture but to our community. I think that’s one area of growth that I really see parallel to these two people that we play.”
She raved about the movie’s message and told the outlet that the two of them went to couple’s therapy as their characters, but helped them immensely with their own selves. “It’s like a full PSA for therapy,” she recounted. “But I think the moral of Creed III is that all people should go to therapy because it’s something that I think really has helped Bianca, for example. Something that I love about her is that I really enjoy quiet heroism. I love the things that we all do as people that we know inside of our bodies feel heroic, but no one ever realizes it. We’re overcoming our own sort of limitations, I guess. I would say one of her limitations when we first met her in the first Creed was an inability to really be totally vulnerable. There was a kind of tough exterior. She’s this Philly girl, but it also had to do with her own trauma and damage, which was a narrative we never got to explore completely.”
Thompson continued, “the line sometimes between character and us get blurred because we bring so much of what we’re exploring personally to the characters in general. So funnily, it was the first time…. I’m probably saying too much. I’ll say it was an early experience in couples therapy for us both [personally], but it was as these characters, which is very weird. But I think it reminded us of our own personal lives that going to therapy, even when a relationship is good, can be a good thing if you’re trying to just sharpen communication and figure out how someone works. It’s useful in so many relationships.”
She also revealed that just talking in therapy as their characters helped them open up about what they would do if they were actually young parents. “Since we’ve been making these movies for eight, nine years, we’ve seen each other through various stages in our own romantic things. So we know stuff about each other’s lives. We shared and talked about it. So therapy ended up starting at work and getting more personal. Also, it was a chance for us to really talk to a couples therapist and understand what are some of the things young parents who are trying to balance their own dreams and aspirations? What are the themes that you see? What are the things they might be up against? What might be their impediments to happiness or success as a couple? That was really fascinating also to hear from her and bring that into the stew.”
Image: Mike Marsland/WireImage
Creed III is the latest installment in the Creed series and features Michael B. Jordan’s character facing a childhood friend turned rival Damian “Diamond Dame” Anderson (played by Jonathan Majors). For this move, Jordan pivoted his way towards directing the third film as well as starring in it. “Directing has always been an aspiration, but the timing had to be right. Creed III is that moment — a time in my life where I’ve grown more sure of who I am, holding agency in my own story, maturing personally, growing professionally, and learning from the Greats like Ryan Coogler, most recently Denzel Washington, and other top tier directors I respect,” he said in a statement to Deadline. “All of which sets the table for this moment. This franchise and in particular the themes of Creed III are deeply personal to me. I look forward to sharing the next chapter of Adonis Creed’s story with the awesome responsibility of being its director and namesake.”
What did Tessa Thompson say about Michael B. Jordan as a director?
Working with the actor in three movies, and first time as a director, Tessa Thompson praised Jordan’s style of direction in an interview with IndieWire. “In some ways and in my estimation, someone that’s really brilliant at directing, it doesn’t just have to do with the product that everyone sees, it has to do with the experience that they create for however many months that you’re making the thing,” Thompson said. “How well they take care of a crew and honor everyone’s contribution, because people work really, really hard. There are a lot of people that no one ever sees on screen. So I felt so proud of him for being able to create an environment that was pleasant to work inside of.”
She went into specifics about how he would take care of the cast and crew in his directorial debut. “Even though he was taxed and stressed, and I know it because I know him so well and I could tell the days where things were tough for him, never would he take it out on anybody around him,” she said. “He would take a breath and figure it out and go back in there and treat everyone with respect and ask people how their weekend was and be just a lovely, lovely leader. That, to me, is the mark of someone that can really do this because this should be, at its best, a team sport, and that person is just the captain, but everyone is important on the team.”
She even joked about how he would choose her wardrobe on set. “There was a party scene where I really wanted to wear something… I wanted to wear all black because I’m secretly goth. I never got to be in high school, so now I am,” Thompson said on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. “And he was like, ‘No, no, no. You’re not gonna wear that.’”She later admitted that his direction was ultimately the correct move. “He was right in the end. He was,” she said. “I can admit when I’m wrong.”
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