Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan on ‘Sinners’ unique spin on vampirism
Writer/director Ryan Coogler’s latest collaboration with Michael B. Jordan, Sinners, brings fresh blood to vampire movies, and audiences are swooning over the bloodsucker film and its rapturous musical numbers. Critics are raving; the box office is booming. But behind the glamor of sexy vampires played by Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, and Jack O’Connell, Sinners offers a powerful message about art and corruption.
In Sinners, the vampire Remmick (O’Connell) wants nothing more than to make blues musician Sammie (Miles Caton) part of his coven. But to give in to this monster’s sweet song (and jig) would cost Sammie his soul.
Mashable Entertainment Editor Kristy Puchko sat down with Coogler, who wrote and directed Sinners, and Jordan, who stars as twins Smoke and Stack, and asked if they could relate to Sammie’s struggle to keep his art uncorrupted. The star of Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, Creed, and Black Panther, Jordan spoke to his experience as an actor as well as his critically heralded leap to director with Creed III.
For Coogler’s part, he touched on the legend of Robert Johnson, a blues musician who, as the story goes, sold his soul to the devil for success. Coogler describes the choice Sammie and his family face in Sinners as a “Faustian deal,” saying, “A Delta blues legend of a man selling his soul to be good at guitar for the remainder of his life. You know, that kind of exchange, when you’ve been dealt a bad hand by society or by faith, what are you willing to give up to escape that?
“More than anything,” Coogler continued, “Vampirism is a way out of a situation — with a very high cost.”
Be sure to stay through the credits of Sinners to see if that cost is worth it.