Sure, Michael B. Jordan could just ignore all of the negative comments thrown around over his "Fantastic Four" casting, or he could put his critics in their place by writing a perfectly put-together piece that addresses and shuts down their criticism.
Yeah, the latter sounds better. And that's just what he did.
In his response to "Internet trolls" published by Entertainment Weekly, the 28-year-old actor began by taking the elephant in the room out into the open — a black actor is playing the role of a blond-haired, blue-eyed character in the comic book.
"I didn't want to be ignorant about what people were saying," he wrote. "Turns out this is what they were saying: 'A black guy? I don't like it. They must be doing it because Obama's president' and 'It's not true to the comic.' Or even, 'They've destroyed it!'
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"It used to bother me, but it doesn't anymore. I can see everybody's perspective, and I know I can't ask the audience to forget 50 years of comic books," Jordan continues.
"But the world is a little more diverse in 2015 than when the Fantastic Four comic first came out in 1961. Plus, if Stan Lee writes an email to my director saying, 'You're good. I'm okay with this,' who am I to go against that?"
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He continues to note that some may look at his casting as the industry trying to be politically correct or meeting some racial quota, "Or they could look at it as a creative choice by the director, Josh Trank, who is in an interracial relationship himself — a reflection of what a modern family looks like today."
Jordan adds, "People are always going to see each other in terms of race, but maybe in the future we won't talk about it as much. Maybe, if I set an example, Hollywood will start considering more people of color in other prominent roles, and maybe we can reach the people who are stuck in the mindset that 'it has to be true to the comic book.' Or maybe we have to reach past them.
"To the trolls on the Internet, I want to say: Get your head out of the computer. Go outside and walk around. Look at the people walking next to you. Look at your friends' friends and who they're interacting with. And just understand this is the world we live in. It's okay to like it."
You tell 'em, MBJ! Don't forget to catch "Fantastic Four" in theaters on August 7.
