Los Angeles: Actor Michael B Jordon is not bothered about the backlash surrounding his casting as Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four, a character originally written with blond hair and blue eyes.
The actor, however, said his casting is not "political correctness or an attempt to meet a racial quota" but merely a reflection of modern times, reported Entertainment Weekly.
"You're not supposed to go on the Internet when you?re cast as a superhero. But after taking on Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four... I wanted to check the pulse out there. I didn't want to be ignorant about what people were saying," Jordon said in a write-up on the website.
"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. 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?," he said.
The actor said while many will find different meaning in it, his casting by Josh Trank is merely a creative choice.
"... 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.
"... Sometimes you have to be the person who stands up and says, 'I'll be the one to shoulder all this hate. I'll take the brunt for the next couple of generations.' I put that responsibility on myself," Jordon said, adding that hopefully there would be less talk about race.
Meanwhile, he asked the trolls on the Internet to leave the computer and "walk around".
