{"id":393557,"date":"2026-04-23T10:04:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/393557\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T10:04:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:04:23","slug":"latoya-jackson-says-sister-janet-kindly-declined-to-be-portrayed-in-michael","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/393557\/","title":{"rendered":"LaToya Jackson Says Sister Janet ‘Kindly Declined’ to Be Portrayed in ‘Michael’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where in the \u201cMichael<\/a>\u201d world is Janet Jackson<\/a>?<\/p>\n

The music superstar is nowhere to be seen as a character in the new Antoine Fuqua-directed biopic about her late brother.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish everybody was in the movie,\u201d Jackson sibling LaToya Jackson told me Monday night at the film\u2019s premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. \u201cShe was asked and she kindly declined so you have to respect her wishes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael is portrayed by their nephew Jaafar Jackson with Joe Jackson played by Colman Domingo and Nia Long playing Katherine Jackson. LaToya is portrayed by Jessica Sula. Juliano Valdi takes on the role of younger Michael.<\/p>\n

Love Film & TV?<\/p>\n

Get your daily dose of everything happening in music, film and TV in Australia and abroad.<\/p>\n

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Fuqua said it was \u201cvery important\u201d for him to have the Jackson family involved with the movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re telling somebody\u2019s life, you want to make sure that they\u2019re happy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Not only does Michael\u2019s estate have a financial investment in the project, but his son, Prince Jackson, serves as an executive producer. His other children Bigi and Paris are not involved. Paris has publicly criticized the film for having \u201ca lot of inaccuracies\u201d and \u201ca lot of full blown lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said in a video posted to social media, \u201cThe film panders to a very specific section of my dad\u2019s fandom that still lives in the fantasy. And they\u2019re going to be happy with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Janet, Fuqua said, \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

LaToya gushed over Jaafar\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my gosh, I have to tell you that Jaafar was absolutely fabulous,\u201d LaToya said. \u201cI\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

As Variety\u2019s Brent Lang and Rebecca Rubin first reported in early April, the Jackson estate had to pay up to $15 million for reshoots<\/a>. They had to cut scenes showing Michael being accused of child molestation by Jordan Chandler because Chandler\u2019s settlement with the singer barred the depiction or mention of him in any movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael\u201d is in theaters on Friday.<\/p>\n

See photos from the premiere below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Prince Jackson and Jaafar Jackson <\/p>\n

Variety via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jessica Sula, Nia Long and Laura Harrier <\/p>\n

Variety via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Colman Domingo, Lionsgate\u2019s Adam Fogelson and Jon Feltheimer and producer Graham King <\/p>\n

(C)KevinMazur<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Usher <\/p>\n

Deadline via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Chance The Rapper <\/p>\n

Deadline via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Producer John Branca and Miles Teller <\/p>\n

Getty Images for Lionsgate<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Where in the \u201cMichael\u201d world is Janet Jackson? The music superstar is nowhere to be seen as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,25386,32038,156799,5494,6455,157,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-393557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-janet-jackson","10":"tag-just-for-variety","11":"tag-latoya-jackson","12":"tag-michael","13":"tag-michael-jackson","14":"tag-music","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}