Ultimate Dolph

Creed was a wonderful film and you’re going back for Creed II. Can you tease a little bit the story?

Creed (Michael B. Jordan) is continuing much like the first movie. The first movie was very much about his journey in figuring out what his own legacy would be, trying to step out of the shadows of his father, and figuring out the man that he is and the man that he wants to be.

In the second film, we find him contending with new-found fame, with the ups and downs of it, with continuing to figure out who he wants to be on his own terms. And then, in terms of Bianca and Adonis, they are trying to figure out are they now really committed to each other and trying to figure out what that means in terms of their relationship.

Bianca’s progressive hearing loss is something that she’s continuing to contend with as she continues to make music and really tries to figure out how to make that next leap. So, they’re navigating that together. That’s all I can say. There are spoilers that MGM would come and hurt me.

The new film has to be a really emotional journey because Creed is fighting Viktor Drago, the son of Ivan Drago, the man responsible for Apollo’s death. Is it even more emotional than the first film?

Potentially, although, I don’t know. In the first film all those scenes of the father and son relationship between Rocky and Adonis, and Rocky contending with [the loss of] his wife, I found all of that deeply emotional. I think that’s the cool thing about these movies, too, is that people are going to find different things that they relate to.

But certainly this is a villain maybe unlike villains that we’ve seen in the context of Rocky movies before, because this villain, like you said, has real emotional ties in some family stuff, so it’s more than just wanting to win. It’s essentially wanting to avenge his father’s death in a way.

Talk about Bianca’s taste in music. Is it anything like your music taste?

Well, I made all that music, so yeah it is, entirely. I made that music with a really talented producer named Ludwig Göransson, who made all the Childish Gambino records and also scored Black Panther and Creed. He’s an incredibly gifted musician that I’m really, really lucky to work with.

We spent the space of two weeks together locked up in a room, 14 hours a day, and we made all those songs. We made about eight songs, four of them on the first Creed soundtrack and in the movie, and so we’re doing that again. I go to the studio right after I’m done talking to you.

The music is inspired by lots of artists like Kelela, Portishead, and Mack Attack, and Fiza that I really love to listen to. Those were some of the artists that [director] Ryan Coogler threw out when he cast me in the role and let me know that he also wanted me to work on the music.

So, I think it’s a blend of my musical taste and what Ludwig likes, and now we have a new director, Steven Caple, Jr., who is so talented. He’s been sending me references for what he wants the music to feel like. So, I think it’s kind of a hodge podge, but there’s certainly a lot of me in it since I’m writing a good amount of the lyrics and the melody.

Have you ever wanted to run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art like Rocky Balboa?

I’ve never wanted to run up them, but I have walked up them. For the first Creed, I went to Philly about a month early just to spend time getting used to the city and listening to accents, and that was one of the first things I did, because I’m a nerd, so yeah.