In Ryan Coogler‘s Sinners, the serious Smoke and the smiling Stack, are twins who have returned home to Mississippi to open their own club. And then one of them becomes a vampire.
The movie earned an historic 16 Oscar nominations for 2026, including Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan.
On March 16, Jordan won. And this is why: he not only played twins, but two very distinct characters main characters – simultaneously – through a remarkable, thoughtful performance.
‘You want me to play identical twins?’
Jordan told the LA Times about how Coogler pitched him the role.
“Then he told me about Sinners. It sounded fantastic, but he left out the vampires at first and left out the identical twins, and just kind of dropped those things along the way.
“I was like, ‘You want me to play identical twins? You could have led with that!’ But I’m a self-motivator. You give me a mission, give me a goal and I’m going to reach it.”
Initially, Jordan had Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter to help delineate the twins externally – but it was more than just appearances.
Jordan said, “Smoke’s closed off and guarded, he’s planted, so let’s give him a size-too-big shoe because I wanted him to move slow and methodical.
“With Stack, we did a half-size too small to feel like he couldn’t sit still because that’s how he coped with his trauma — through his slick talk and smiling and laughing and going from one thing to the next because he wanted to f— move on from the pain like it didn’t happen.”
@reel.takes Replying to @Janet Michael B. Jordan gives 3 distinct performances in Sinners, but for some this still isn’t enough. I just gave Sinners a rewatch in preparation for the Academy Awards this weekend, and I wanted to talk about some of the aspects of his performance that jump off the screen. #sinners #michaelbjordan #academyawards #oscars #OscarsPostContest ♬ original sound – Reel Takes
Three ways Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor Oscar 2026
TikToker @reel.takes furthers the analysis of Jordan’s performance.
“The basics of a dual performance are physicality and voice,” he begins in one of his Sinners clips.
“The two voices are not alike at all, that’s because Michael B. Jordan was working with a dialect coach, who helped him craft two distinct voices.
“Stacks talks in a higher pitch, and he generally is talking faster… His jaw, the way he moves when he talks – everything about him is looser.
“With Smoke, everything around his mouth and jaw is tighter and more reserved. Smoke is very direct, very blunt.”
The creator also makes the point that Jordan actually plays a third character – the vampire version of Stack (sorry, a spoiler, but a publicly known one) – making his overall performance in Sinners even more outstanding then many viewers realise.
Top Image: Michael B. Jordan wins 2026 Best Actor Oscar