{"id":387131,"date":"2026-04-11T18:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T18:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/387131\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T18:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T18:53:09","slug":"jaafar-jackson-on-what-it-took-to-portray-his-uncle-the-king-of-pop-in-michael","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/387131\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaafar Jackson on What It Took to Portray His Uncle, the King of Pop, in \u201cMichael\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Playing a pop icon like Michael Jackson<\/a> for the big screen would be intimidating for any rising actor and singer\u2014but later this month, it becomes a more personal sentiment for 29-year-old star Jaafar Jackson, who is portraying his uncle in Antoine Fuqua<\/a>\u2019s movie-musical Michael. \u201cIt\u2019s an honor of a lifetime. Definitely an experience I\u2019ll never forget,\u201d says Jackson, who is the son of Jermaine Jackson, one of Michael\u2019s brothers and a former Jackson 5 member. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be more proud and grateful to be able to tell Michael\u2019s story in a cinematic way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film will follow Michael\u2019s rise from his Jackson 5 days to becoming the worldwide \u201cKing of Pop,\u201d and marks Jackson\u2019s very first acting role\u2014no pressure! In order to prepare for the buzzy project, Jackson spent two years researching and training for the role. He spent quality time with Michael when he was younger, but he had some gaps to fill in, especially around his early career days. \u201cIt was important for me to start at the roots from the very beginning when the Jackson 5 started, and make sure I understood Michaels point of view from the early days all the way through his adulthood,\u201d says Jackson. \u201cThere\u2019s a list of many things I did to feel ready for when I arrived on set. It was an extensive amount of prep work that started with dissecting many archival videos, listening to his music, and immersing myself in his personal writings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Jackson gets ready for the Michael premiere in Berlin.<\/p>\n

Photo: Arno<\/p>\n

Nailing Michael\u2019s distinctive choreography and singing was, of course, of the upmost importance. To get in total character, the star worked with the esteemed choreographers Rich + Tone Talauega. \u201cThey were Michael\u2019s actual choreographers he had on the \u2018History\u2019 tour,\u201d says Jackson, who spent many months learning his signatures moves. \u201cI started to absorb all of Michael\u2019s tours, and collected a library of any video I can find of him dancing. I really started studying it on a daily basis, and practicing in the mirror for hours and hours every day. It took a couple years until I felt confident with the dance moves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Equally as memorable for Jackson while filming were the glamorous, theatrical costumes he got to wear in-character, all brought to life by costume designer Marci Rodgers\u2014from his iconic Thriller outfit, to his notable collection of military jackets. \u201cThat was such a fun process for me, being able to try on all the wardrobe and also perform with those iconic outfits,\u201d says Jackson. \u201cSeeing the clothing coming to life helped me to understand how specific and detailed Michael was on how he wanted to look on stage while dancing.\u201d Some of his favorite personal costumes? \u201cOne of my favorites that I had the chance to wear was the Thriller look, and also the Billie Jean look from Motown 25.\u201d<\/p>\n

This month, meanwhile, Jackson has been engaging with a different fashion wardrobe while on the film\u2019s press tour. He worked with stylist Ilaria Urbinati<\/a> to cultivate press looks that are stylish and modern, yet nod to the spirit of MJ style. Call it subtle method dressing<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s been such a fun process, especially since it\u2019s my first time experiencing this,\u201d says Jackson. \u201cI\u2019m excited to wear the clothes that make me feel my best, and at the same time, give a subtle homage to Michael.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Playing a pop icon like Michael Jackson for the big screen would be intimidating for any rising actor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1978,146,85,46,10351,10201,5101],"class_list":{"0":"post-387131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-celebrity-style","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-splitscreenimagerightinset","13":"tag-storytypenews-trending","14":"tag-web"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}