A debut as a film actor, for a feat that would make anyone tremble: playing Michael Jackson in a biopic. This is the challenge that the grandson of the king of pop, Jaafar Jackson (Jermaine’s son, ed.), born in 1996, has accepted as the protagonist of Michael, a 155 million dollar biopic, directed by Antoine Fuqua, which has just premiered with a global fan premiere in Berlin and will be in theaters with Universal from April 22nd.
The cast also includes Colman Domingo in the role of Michael’s father, Joe Jackson; Kat Graham as Diana Ross; Nia Long as the pop star’s mother, Katherine; Kendrick Sampson as Quincy Jones, Miles Teller as lawyer John Branca and Juliano Krue Valdi as Michael as a child. The story, which according to what has already been announced, stops chronologically at the moment of greatest success of the ‘Bad’ star, could expand, in the case of a great success at the box office, with sequels.
Co-producing are Graham King (Bohemian Rhapsody) together with John Branca and John McClain, of the Michael Jackson Estate (which manages the rights, assets and assets of the pop star who died in 2009 at the age of 50, ed.). «I remember the first phone call with Graham King – said Jaafar Jackson in Berlin – when he told me about the project. I had never acted before, I had never wanted to do it, so I was very doubtful because I wasn’t sure if I was really capable of it.
So I started working with an acting coach and I really wanted to learn what acting meant before I tried to impersonate Michael. I prepared like this for about a year and then I really started studying, with Michael’s videos, his lyrics, everything about him.” Material «that I used for full immersion, letting him channel himself into me». The young actor, who was twelve when his uncle died, has «very few direct memories of him and they all date back to when I was very little. One of my favorites is the first time I saw him perform on stage in New York… it was the best experience of my life.”
For Antoine Fuqua, award-winning filmmaker, author of films such as Training day, Southpaw and the three Equalizers “the world needs love right now, and this is precisely what Michael Jackson represents”. Regarding having wanted to give the protagonist role to Jaafar Jackson «he deserved it, despite being Michael’s nephew – he comments -. He spent two or three years studying the character and the dance, even before he had officially got the part.”
The Berlin celebration, punctuated by various events and meetings of the cast and filmmakers with the press, also offered on the red carpet a clear picture of the family clash surrounding the film. There were many Jacksons, including two of Michael’s sons, Prince and Bigi as well as some of the pop icon’s brothers, Jackie, Jermaine and Marlon.
However, among others, Janet Jackson (who did not want to participate in the project) and above all Michael’s other daughter, Paris, who criticized the project from the beginning, were absent. First she defined the script of the biopic as sugar-coated and dishonest and then attacked the Michael Jackson Estate (with which the 28-year-old has been on a collision course for some time) for the large sums spent on the film, including 15 million dollars earmarked for reshoots.
A return to the set was necessary, according to what Variety wrote, to replace the entire last part, already filmed, which also addressed the theme of child molestation (again rejected by Jackson, later acquitted in 2005 on 10 charges, ed.) faced by the artist in 1993.
A change in progress that would have been caused by a legal obstacle, born from a settlement agreement signed a few years ago with one of Jackson’s accusers. However, the enthusiasm of the actors who participated in the film is high: «All we wanted to do was honor and celebrate Michael – explained Nia Long -. The legacy he left behind is his love for humanity, his commitment to his family, to his brothers, to himself.
You will see the path that took him from child prodigy to adult star. I think the difference between us and him is that millions and millions of people watched him as he tried to go through that process of self-discovery, which is difficult for anyone.”