Prior to Fruitvale Station, Michael B. Jordan had played numerous roles written for black actors in TV shows like The Wire and films like Red Tails.
Instead of sticking to the roles written for black actors, he called his agent and demanded characters written for white actors to remove “slight bias” from the casting process.
However, following his portrayal of Oscar Grant (a young black man shot by police in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve in 2009) in Fruitvale Station, he opted to make the change.