'I really liked the idea': Tessa Thompson reveals she went to 'couples therapy' with Michael B Jordan to prep for 'Creed III' roles
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: ‘Creed III’ stars Tessa Thompson and Michael B Jordan took their acting assignments seriously as they went to ‘Couples Therapy’ while “in character” as Bianca Creed and Adonis ‘Donnie’ Creed respectively. While preparing for their roles in their new release, the two actors “of color” went to Couples Therapy which ended up with Thompson liking “the idea."
The ‘Creed’ franchise veteran, Thompson recently revealed in an interview that, “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.” Talking about her character, Bianca, wife of the eponymous Adonis Creed, she says, “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.”
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Continuing with the issue of being vulnerable, she talked candidly in an interview with Refinery29 about her character which had a developmental arc from being an up-and-coming singer-songwriter in the first ‘Creed’ film with a progressive hearing loss to a wife of a “soon-to-be retired famous boxer” and mother of Adonis’s deaf daughter along with being a music producer. She said, “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.”
However, the star, who internalized the character while acting, said lovingly of the character, “And so her journey has been so much about softening, and motherhood is something that has softened her and her own struggles have softened her, but also her work in therapy. [She’s learned] it's okay to be seen by somebody in your fullness, in your softness."
'I really liked the idea'
Blurring the line between reel and real, she talks about the importance of therapy and how it has helped her understand the character better, “And she constantly reminds me to just stay in therapy, get into therapy, talk about your feelings. You don't always have to have it figured out. You don't always have to be tough. But I really liked the idea.”
She further added, “And finally, Mike and I actually went to therapy together. We did couples therapy.”
She, however, did feel “very weird” initially as she said, “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.” She later continued, “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.”
‘We know stuff about each other’s lives’
Starring in a movie franchise for “eight, nine years”, the ‘Creed’ couple, Adonis and Bianca, in real life too developed a strong bond. Talking earlier about how they grew as characters and as individuals, she said, “I remember when we were developing Creed III, we were looking at old photographs from the first one, and we both agreed we are babies in that. Obviously, we weren't just talking about how we look like babies. 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.”
Highlighting the close bond they share, she later added, “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.”
The method actor further divulged, “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."
‘Creed III’, a directorial venture of Michael B Jordan, and starring Tessa Thompson is now running in theaters.