Here’s the other glaringly obvious thing about Jordan: He’s a bonafide capital “H” Heartthrob. When MBJ came up in conversation the other day at a party (as he frequently does when you’re talking to me at a party), a friend said she didn’t buy Just Mercy because Jordan was “too good looking for that role.” DiCaprio and Pitt also have this problem (if you can call it that). They were both shut out from winning Oscars until well into their careers (DiCaprio finally received what many call a “career Oscar” for The Revenant in 2016, and Pitt is now the favourite to win his first acting Oscar for Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood). The theory is that the Academy thinks these men are too pretty to be taken seriously. But again, they’ve both gotten multiple Oscar nominations. It’s already a tiny bit of progress that a Black actor like Jordan is considered a universal object of thirst, but that title seems to be more detrimental for him than it has been for white actors. Look at Academy Award nominees Timothée Chalamet and Adam Driver, who get to be lusted after by all of Twitter and lauded by awarding bodies.