The filmmaker and actor recount the complicated scene involving Jordan’s twin brother characters and actor Miles Caton.

Double take: Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan recall the day the director ‘almost lost my mind’ filming Sinners

The filmmaker and actor recount the complicated scene involving Jordan's twin brother characters and actor Miles Caton.

By Gerrad Hall

Gerrad Hall is an editorial director at **, overseeing movie, awards, and music coverage. He is also host of *The Awardist* podcast, and has cohosted EW's live Oscars, Emmys, SAG, and Grammys red carpet shows. He has appeared on *Good Morning America*, *The Talk*, *Access Hollywood*, *Extra!*, and other talk shows, delivering the latest news on pop culture and entertainment.

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December 14, 2025 11:00 a.m. ET

Michael B. Jordan as twin brothers Stack and Smoke in 'Sinners'. Credit:

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Michael B. Jordan has starred in almost all of Ryan Coogler’s movies: 2013’s *Fruitvale Station*; 2015’s *Rocky* spinoff *Creed*; 2018’s *Black Panther* (and a brief appearance in its 2022 sequel, *Wakanda Forever*) — stories with no shortage of drama and action. So how did they up the ante for their latest, this year’s *Sinners*? How about a horror film…set in 1932 Mississippi…with vampires…and Jordan playing twins. That’ll do it.

“Every day was different. Every scene was different, ” Coogler tells ** on *The Awardist* podcast, of figuring out how to film Jordan as brothers Smoke and Stack. “Watching the movie, there are certain scenes you wouldn’t think were difficult. Like...” he turns to Jordan, sitting next to him, “you remember the day I almost lost my mind — where you guys had to drive the car and get into the bushes? Pulling off that shot was f---ing crazy, because Mike’s driving, and we had to do a repeated pass of the car driving up and landing, them getting out of the car with the correct timing, and then interacting with the bush with the correct timing.”

But Smoke and Stack walk differently, drive the car differently, and get out of the car differently. “You can see the difference in performance,” Coogler says, “but also, because of the timing, they have to enter the bushes in a certain way.” The director and star created their own challenge, but “it looks good,” he concedes, laughing.

Director Ryan Coogler on set of 'Sinners' with Michael B. Jordan and Miles Caton.

Eli Adé/Warner Bros.

Navigating the physical and mental differences between the twins — WWI veterans who return to Mississippi after years working in Chicago (and stealing money from gangsters there to open a juke joint back home) — “became one and the same,” Jordan says. In scenes where both appear, he had to know exactly how his brother would deliver lines. “I would have to work with my twin double, Percy Bell, and direct him on what I was going to do, so I could have that performance to react off of when I was playing the first brother.”

'Sinners' scene breakdown: Behind the scenes of the hallucinatory juke joint performance

Octavia Spencer celebrates 'iconic' 'Sinners' duo Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan for EW's 2025 Entertainers of the Year

Whichever brother started the scene would set the “rules of blocking and coverage,” he explains, “because we couldn’t exist in the same space…. That was the thing that we found out in real time.”

It’s that spontaneity that Jordan says “excited” his fellow *Sinners* cast (including Delroy Lindo, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Omar Benson Miller, Jayme Lawson, and Li Jun Li) to join the project, particularly the way Coogler “writes and creates these worlds and brings things to life. The way he treats his actors — and the freedom that we have, and the space that he creates for us to take swings and to be vulnerable—is the dream.”

*Sinners* is available to stream on HBO Max. Listen to Coogler and Jordan's full interview on *The Awardist* podcast, below.

*This story appears in a special *Awardist* 2026 Kickoff print issue of **.*

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