A St. Hubert’s senior brought a cardboard cutout of Michael B. Jordan to her prom. Months later, she was given the opportunity to meet the ‘Creed’ star in person.
When her prom plans didn’t work out at the last minute, Audeva Agyeman got creative.
The senior at St. Hubert’s said she is known among her friends for doing funny and crazy things. So she went to the prom accompanied by a cardboard cutout of movie star Michael B. Jordan.
“I liked him before Black Panther,” the star’s biggest fan said. “I remember one time I saw him on a commercial and thought he was cute, so I binge watched all of his stuff.”
Her fandom recently paid off when she was surprised with the opportunity to meet the star in person. The real deal, not a cardboard cutout.
After pictures from her accompanying the cutout to the prom went viral on Twitter and Instagram, the marketing team for Creed 2, the Rocky sequel starring Jordan and Sylvester Stallone that filmed in Philadelphia, reached out to Agyeman for an opportunity.
“People from [Creed 2] contacted me and asked me to be in a fan video, but they said Michael wouldn’t be there,” she said.
That was a lie.
Agyeman said when she arrived to film the video, he stood behind her for “five minutes” before she noticed.
“When I first saw him, I said, it’s Michael B. Jordan, then comprehended in my head I’m actually meeting him,” she said. “I felt like I had to cry but tears weren’t coming out.”
After Agyeman composed herself, she recalled hugging the 6-foot-2 actor and talking to him for 15 minutes about school and other topics. She was also sure to take this opportunity to ask him to the next prom in person.
“He just chuckled but didn’t say no,” she said. “So it’s not confirmed, but I’ll try.”
Agyeman saw Black Panther in theaters multiple times and is a big fan of the first Creed. She said she’s a fan of Hardball, one of his first film roles in 2001, and his 12-episode role on The Wire in 2002.
Taking the cutout to the prom was a bold move for the high school student, but she said it went over well and that all the teachers loved it.
“The only thing I was scared of is I only paid for one ticket, but the teachers loved it and let me in with it,” she said.
After the prom, her friends encouraged her to send photos into The Shade Room, a celebrity and entertainment news source that has 13.8 million followers on Instagram. She did, but figured they wouldn’t post it.
She was wrong.
“My friends said, ‘You’re on the page,’” she recalled. “My follower requests kept going up, and my phone kept freezing.”
That’s how the Creed team found out about her pictures.
Agyeman met Jordan on June 4, but wasn’t allowed to talk about it until recently, as marketing for the movie to be released Nov. 21 gathers steam.
“I couldn’t tell anyone even though it was literally racking my brain,” she said. “I kept telling people, big things are about to happen, but I can’t tell you yet.”
When Agyeman graduates next spring, she hopes to study psychology at the University of Georgia so she can help others out their with sadness. However, she still has an entire school year left, and said that incoming freshmen have already been messaging her, saying they’re excited to go to school with a “celebrity.”
She has two goals to top this stunt.
First, she’s hoping this story can get her on Ellen. She and her friends have been reaching out to the talk show host.
And second?
“Take Michael B. Jordan to prom,” she said. ••
