Michael B. Jordan on winning the Oscar for best actor: ‘What’s for you is for you’
Michael B. Jordan accepts the best actor award at the 2026 Academy Awards. (Disney/Frank Micelotta)
Michael B. Jordan won best actor at the Academy Awards Sunday for his dual role in Sinners, becoming the sixth Black actor to take home the award.
Speaking backstage, he reflected on the honor and the balance between being ambitious and trusting the path meant for you.
“There is a selfishness in understanding that in your craft, in your industry, this is a pinnacle,” he said. “This is what our industry standard is, it’s what we put value on in a big way. That competitiveness, you do want that.”
At the same time, he said success comes down to timing.
“What’s for you is for you,” he continued. “And you can’t take anybody’s blessings away…So I’m just like walking my path, man, and just trying to be locked in.”
He encouraged actors and artists “to keep that in mind” during their journeys, to remain honest and continue dreaming big.
In Sinners, Jordan played twin brothers Smoke and Stack. To prepare, he imagined the history they shared after spending their whole lives together.
“Just imagine you being in a partnership for like 30-something years. How many times they would argue? How many times they would keep score on who’s right and who’s wrong?” he said, noting he built those layers so it could feel like they had a real history.
Director Ryan Coogler said he always believed Jordan was perfect for the role.
“I knew I had to call Mike,” he said backstage. “He ended up calling me before I got to him and asking me if I would be interested in something he was working on independently. And I told him it wasn’t the right time.”
He said Jordan got upset, forcing him to tell him about Sinners earlier than he intended. “Thankfully he said yes,” Coogler said.
Sinners also won the Oscar for best original screenplay.
Barry Keoghan and Cillian Murphy on set of “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.’ (Robert Viglasky/Netflix)
The upcoming Peaky Blinders film now has an official title and a release date.
This next installment in the franchise is called Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man. It will arrive in select cinemas for a theatrical release on March 6, 2026, before streaming on Netflix on March 20.
Cillian Murphy reprises his role as Tommy Shelby in the upcoming film, which also stars Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth, Sophie Rundle, Barry Keoghan, Stephen Graham and Jay Lycurgo.
“It seems like Tommy Shelby wasn’t finished with me,” Murphy said to Netflix’s Tudum. “It is very gratifying to be re-collaborating with Steven Knight and Tom Harper on the film version of Peaky Blinders. This is one for the fans.”
Other Peaky Blinders alum coming along for the new movie are Ned Dennehy, Packy Lee and Ian Peck.
The upcoming film takes place in Birmingham in 1940.
“Amidst the chaos of WWII, Tommy Shelby is driven back from a self-imposed exile to face his most destructive reckoning yet. With the future of the family and the country at stake, Tommy must face his own demons, and choose whether to confront his legacy, or burn it to the ground. By order of the Peaky Blinders,” according to its official logline.
Harper directs the film from a script by Knight. Knight created and wrote the original series.
Justin Baldoni speaks onstage at the Vital Voices 12th Annual Voices of Solidarity Awards, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. Blake Lively attends ‘Another Simple Favor’ New York Screening, April 27, 2025, in New York. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images | Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
Animosity on the set of the film It Ends With Us was evident well before highly publicized lawsuits between stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni were filed, newly unsealed text messages show.
The messages, which are among the hundreds of documents the judge overseeing the civil claims ordered unsealed ahead of a hearing this week, show Lively and Baldoni venting to friends and colleagues during filming.
In a May 2023 text exchange between Lively and a journalist, Lively expresses her frustration with filming and says she “came home and cried” on one occasion. The actress also writes, “They’re just being creeps,” when referring to her co-star.
Texts between Baldoni and another actor show he was equally frustrated while making the movie. Baldoni, who also served as the film’s director, said in one message that Lively was threatening not to promote the movie if she was not allowed to take part in the edit.
In one message, he wrote, “She had the nuclear bomb. If she doesn’t promote the movie she can leak that I’m a bad person or that she felt unsafe with me and ‘all the stuff’ she has on me. Then she’s the victim.”
In a later text message, he wrote, “The risk to my family isn’t worth the creative integrity.”
Other unsealed documents include a text exchange between Lively and fellow actress Jenny Slate, who also appeared in the film.
Referring to Baldoni, Lively wrote, “I also saw something in him, was aware of a general vibe that I’m not into, and I pushed past it. Never again! Lesson learned.”
ABC News has reached out to Slate’s representative for comment.
Lively first filed a complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department in December 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment on the set of It Ends with Us and accusing both Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios of engaging in a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” Lively’s reputation.
The two filed dueling lawsuits against each other in New York in the weeks that followed, with Lively reiterating the claims made in her earlier complaint and further accusing Baldoni of retaliation, suing him for nearly $500 million in damages. Baldoni’s lawyer denied the allegations, stating at the time that they had “evidence which will show a pattern of bullying and threats to take over the movie” by Lively.
Baldoni filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, the couple’s publicist Leslie Sloane, and Sloane’s public relations company Vision PR alleging extortion and defamation, claiming Lively had “robbed” him of control over the film and had destroyed his reputation.
Lively’s lawyers denied the allegations and called Baldoni’s suit “another chapter in the abuser playbook.”
“This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim,” they said in a statement at the time.
A federal judge in New York dismissed Baldoni’s suit in June of last year, formally ending the counterclaim in October after Baldoni did not refile an amended complaint. Attorney Byran Freedman said at the time, “Our clients chose not to amend their complaint to preserve appeal rights. In the meantime, we are focusing on Ms. Lively’s claims. We remain fully committed to pursuing the truth through every legal and factual avenue available and look forward to our day in court.”
Lively’s suit against Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios is ongoing.
This week’s documents were unsealed ahead of a hearing scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 22. The trial is set to begin May 18.
A member of Lively’s legal team responded to the newly unsealed documents in a statement to ABC News, writing, “In his TedTalk to promote his brand as an advocate for women, Justin Baldoni said we must ‘listen to the women’…even if what they are saying is against you.’ See how he actually reacts in the bombshell new evidence released for the first time, which includes sworn testimony and contemporaneous messages from numerous women who actually worked with him.”
The statement continued, “The newly unsealed evidence contains never-before seen testimony, messages, and evidence from numerous eyewitnesses backing the claims in Ms. Lively’s lawsuit. The evidence includes Ms. Lively’s own testimony describing the harassment she faced, as well as new evidence from numerous women describing their own disturbing experiences.”
ABC News has reached out to Baldoni’s representatives for comment.
Kate Winslet attends the ‘Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision’ premiere at Windsor Castle on Jan. 28, 2026, in Windsor, England. (Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)
Kate Winslet might just be making her way to The Shire.
The Oscar winner is in talks to star as the female lead in the upcoming film The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, Deadline reports. The specific role she would play has not been revealed.
Warner Bros. Pictures had no comment when reached by ABC Audio.
The upcoming film is set to debut in movie theaters on Dec. 17, 2027. Andy Serkis, who has played Gollum in The Lord of the Rings franchise for decades, will direct it.
Peter Jackson and his partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens will produce The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, with the studio saying the creatives will be on board every step of the way.
“Yesssss, Precious. The time has come once more to venture into the unknown with my dear friends, the extraordinary and incomparable guardians of Middle-earth Peter, Fran and Philippa,” Serkis said at the time the project was announced.
Jackson, Walsh and Boyens also shared a joint statement.
“It is an honour and a privilege to travel back to Middle-earth with our good friend and collaborator, Andy Serkis, who has unfinished business with that Stinker – Gollum!” they said.
Sir Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf the Grey in the original trilogy, revealed details about the upcoming film at the For the Love of Fantasy fan event in August 2025.
“I hear there’s going to be another movie based in Middle-earth, and it’s going to start filming in May. It’s going to be directed by Gollum, and it’s all about Gollum,” McKellen said.
“I’ll tell you two secrets about the casting: There’s a character in the movie called Frodo, and there’s a character in the movie called Gandalf,” McKellen said. “Apart from that, my lips are sealed!”
