Janet and Michael\u2019s daughter Paris were both absent from Monday\u2019s premiere of Michael,<\/a> directed by Antoine Fuqua. <\/a>LaToya revealed on the red carpet that Janet turned down the opportunity to participate or be portrayed in the movie about the late superstar.<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cI wish everybody was in the movie,\u201d LaToya, 69, told Variety<\/a> at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. \u201cShe was asked and she kindly declined so you have to respect her wishes.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael, which was approved and financed by the late singer\u2019s estate, follows the singer from becoming a household name during his childhood until the height of his fame in 1988 \u2014 which has sparked backlash as the film does not confront the child abuse allegations against him<\/a> before his death in 2009, and opted instead to completely cut the claims out <\/a>of the film.<\/p>\n The titular star is portrayed by Jaafar Jackson<\/a>, the nephew of LaToya, Janet and Michael. His parents, Joe and Katherine Jackson, are played Colman Domingo and Nia Long. LaToya is played by Jessica Sula, and Juliano Valdi plays younger Michael.<\/p>\n LaToya went on to gush about her nephew\u2019s performance<\/a> in the movie, saying, \u201cOh my gosh, I have to tell you that Jaafar was absolutely fabulous. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve seen the movie and you know how wonderful he is, how we all forget and think that we\u2019re watching Mike. It\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, I forgot this is Jaafar.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Director Fuqua told Variety that it was important for him to involve the Jackson family in the film, saying, \u201cYou\u2019re telling somebody\u2019s life, you want to make sure that they\u2019re happy.\u201d<\/p>\n He added about Janet: \u201cI have so much respect and love for Janet, but you know it\u2019s OK. She\u2019s supportive of Jaafar and that\u2019s what matters.\u201d<\/p>\n Janet is not the only family member who has stayed away from the biopic<\/a>. <\/p>\n While Michael\u2019s son, Prince, served as an executive producer on the movie, his children Bigi and Paris were not involved in the film.<\/p>\n Amid her legal battle with her late father\u2019s estate<\/a>, Paris has publicly criticized the movie as inaccurate and she questioned the role of estate executor John Branca <\/a>as an executive producer in the movie. She also rejected Domingo\u2019s claim<\/a> that she had any involvement in the film.<\/p>\n \u201cA big section of the film panders to a very specific section of my dad\u2019s fandom that still lives in the fantasy, and they\u2019re gonna be happy with it,\u201d Paris said in September. \u201cThe narrative is being controlled and there\u2019s a lot of inaccuracy and there\u2019s a lot of just full-blown lies. At the end of the day, that doesn\u2019t really fly with me. Go enjoy it. Do whatever. Leave me out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Neither Paris nor Janet returned The Independent\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[145655,76552,232958,49,232954,48,361,62824,588,75,45528,232960,78476,232957,229893,232959,232955,232962,232965,232956,10000,88420,10491,27389,232953,232961,3585,24775,14817,232963,232964],"class_list":{"0":"post-620521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-arrival","9":"tag-arts-culture-and-entertainment","10":"tag-braided-hair","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-cabaret","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-celebrities","15":"tag-color-image","16":"tag-england","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-gala","19":"tag-hoop-earring","20":"tag-janet-jackson","21":"tag-kit-kat","22":"tag-london-england","23":"tag-open-collar","24":"tag-oversized-object","25":"tag-oversized-suit","26":"tag-pant-suit","27":"tag-performing-arts-event","28":"tag-photography","29":"tag-red-carpet-event","30":"tag-shirt","31":"tag-suit","32":"tag-theatrical-performance","33":"tag-topknot-bun","34":"tag-uk","35":"tag-vertical","36":"tag-white-color","37":"tag-white-shirt","38":"tag-white-suit"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"LaToya](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2271786258.jpg\")
LaToya Jackson said Janet Jackson politely declined to be in the biopic about her late brother (AFP\/Getty)![\"Jaafar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MICHAEL_KM2_0106R10C5.jpeg\")
Jaafar Jackson plays Michael Jackson in the biopic ‘Michael’ (Lionsgate)<\/p>\n![\"Janet](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2223981629.jpg\")
Janet Jackson was not involved in the ‘Michael’ biopic (Getty)<\/p>\n