Michael B. Jordan has proven over and over that he’s one of our best movie stars. He’s a Ryan Coogler muse, a Screen Actors Guild Award winner, and well, he looks like that. He’s been repeatedly snubbed by the Oscars, a badge of honor that puts him in a club along with talented and beloved stars like Steve Buscemi, Ewan McGregor, Thandie Newton, Hugh Grant, Danny Glover, and Colin Farrell. But now, he’s crossed a brand new threshold of stardom, reserved for only the most recognizable A-list elites: A name-only movie cameo.
Jordan is repeatedly mentioned in Nisha Ganatra’s The High Note, starring Tracee Ellis Ross and Dakota Johnson. Ross plays Grace Davis, an iconic superstar who happens to be dating Jordan. In one hilarious scene, Maggie (Johnson), Grace’s long-suffering assistant and aspiring producer, is sent in to prep Grace’s bedroom for that night’s date.
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“For those who haven’t seen the movie,” Ellis Ross recently teased to the Associated Press, “Michael B. Jordan plays my boyfriend, and though he is not in it, he is in it.”
The best part? Jordan’s cameo wasn’t in Flora Greeson’s original script, but one Ganatra added during filming. “It was in the script that she was with somebody, but we made it very specifically Michael B. Jordan,” she told Refinery29 over the phone ahead of the movie’s virtual May 29 premiere. “It was really funny because Tracee ran into him and she was like Oh, by the way, you play my boyfriend in this movie. I just wanted you to know that.”
“I let him know at his birthday [party],” Ross added to the AP. “I’m sorry we don’t have a premiere because I was going to ask him to come with me.”
Although his name is mentioned only a handful times, such is the power of Jordan’s public persona that it really does feel like he’s really always just outside the frame about to walk in. Luckily, the love interest void is filled by Waves’ breakout star Kelvin Harrison Jr, who plays talented singer David, Maggie’s very first client as a burgeoning producer.
Ever the gentleman, Jordan apparently immediately volunteered to come to set and shoot the role, only to be told that the movie had already wrapped. “We had to tell him after the fact, but I’m curious how he’s going to respond when he sees it,” Ganatra said.
Jordan hasn’t yet publicly responded about his feelings on the cameo, but really, who wouldn’t want to date Tracee Ellis Ross?