When Jaafar Jackson Realised How BRUTAL It Was To Be Michael Jackson -dw

 

dancing until my feet would bleed or let them go numb. There’s so many times I would wake up sore and be like, “Should I go rehearse? Should I just take a break and let the body relax?” Then another part of my mind would be like, “No, what would Michael do?” Let’s do it again. Yeah, I missed that. Yeah, yeah.

Jaafar never stopped dancing. He was rehearsing Listen to that. That’s not an actor describing a role. That’s someone describing survival. And the wild part? He was talking about what it took just to get through rehearsal one single day out of hundreds. And he had to do it for two years straight just to get the part.

What came after was completely on another level. Fast forward to 6 months in, he got me a coach that I started to work on a lot of scenes of from other films and it was a multi-year process. It wasn’t just a a traditional I mean yeah, just to know I got the part. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. Before you even got the part? Before I even officially got the part.

This is Jaafar Jackson. For years, he poured everything he had into turning his body into a living copy of his uncle’s. And somewhere in the middle of all that pain, the bleeding feet, the sleepless nights, the endless repetition, he stumbled onto something nobody had warned him about.

If becoming Michael Jackson for a movie hurt this much, what did it actually cost the real Michael to live it? Not for a few years, not for one movie, for his entire life. When people imagine playing Michael Jackson, they think about learning the moonwalk, maybe a few spins, a glove, a hat. That’s the whole job, right? That’s not even close to what the role demanded.

To the point where we realized he needed to be in a class. And so he went into the acting class and I think it was Graham’s idea to put him just around a bunch of peers who are honing in on their acting. No one knew who he was. He went in anonymous. That was the prerequisite. I think it was partway through the class where one of the students leaned over to him and he said, “You know what? They’re auditioning for the Michael movie now.

I think you’d be really great at it. You should go for it.” And Jaafar just smiled in that wonderful, beautiful, sweet smile he has, and he just goes, “Yeah, I’ll think about it.” Jaafar had to study how Michael moved when no camera was on him, the way he held a microphone, the tiny shift of weight before a spin, the half-second pause before a note, the stillness that somehow felt louder than the music itself.

Director Antoine Fuqua said it best, “This was never about looking like Michael. It was about something underneath that, something almost impossible to teach. You can’t hand someone a checklist to become a different person.” Yeah, cuz actually it was helped out. You got to see Michael as a human being, not just the guy on the stage, not Superman on stage, right? So, that was the most important thing is to humanize him.

His co-star Colman Domingo put it even simpler. He said Jaafar didn’t just learn how Michael moved, he learned why Michael moved that way, what every single gesture meant, even the smallest ones. And then you just also wrapped the Michael Jackson biopic. How was that experience like for you? Ah, that was phenomenal.

And when people see Jaafar Jackson as Michael, they’re going to think they’re looking at AI. He’s incredible. He really honors his late uncle in every single way. I think the movie is beautiful, entertaining, complicated, and I think it really does give, you know, just sheds a humanistic light on Michael Jackson. It takes him out of the iconography of Michael and just shows what made this human being.

That’s not choreography, that’s archaeology, digging into a person’s soul frame by frame until you understand the man behind the movement. The breaking point came very soon, 20 days. That’s how long Jaafar was given to learn the Billie Jean performance from Motown 25, one of the most replayed, most studied, most scrutinized 3 minutes in television history.

20 days to recreate something that took Michael a lifetime to perfect. This role was incredibly physically demanding. Initially it started with with Rich and Tone seeing if I had it in me to pull off the performances. And I know we had about 20 days of a of a boot camp basically. And within those 20 days we were breaking down the Billie Jean performance for Motown 25.

And I was so self-conscious at that point. I was so I guess doubtful in a sense that I knew I couldn’t get it down in that time frame. I knew I needed more than 20 days. But within that time I really learned a lot about myself. Jaafar admitted he didn’t think it was possible. He [snorts] knew deep down that 20 days wasn’t enough time.

He was doubtful. He was scared he’d embarrass himself in front of people who had spent their careers around Michael. But he didn’t quit and he didn’t slow down. Wrong moves, mistiming, none of it mattered in that moment. He just tried it again and again. What was the hardest routine? I would say probably Billie Jean, Motown 25.

Because I wanted to get as close as I possibly could to that frame by frame. And that one was tough because trying to stick to that, you know, frame by frame, but also not coming across as just trying to mimic, but still embodying the performance and being believable while sticking to that structure. That was a challenge, you know, hitting every moment, every beat, but also having the energy and the the showmanship behind the moves, too, which was a a challenge.

That’s when the rehearsals stopped feeling like training and started feeling like a full-time job every single day with no audience watching. Just him, a mirror, and a dance studio Michael himself once trained in. His body had to learn an entirely new language from scratch. Hours and hours, day after day, until one single move finally felt right.

Feet going numb, muscles screaming for a break, and every morning the same impossible choice. Rest the body or push through it. Are you singing Michael songs or you getting a little of Michael or both or how does it work? It was It was fun because we When I was doing all the performances, I was actually singing out live in the microphone uh on top of Michael’s track.

So, it’s a blend of my vocal and Michael’s, however they edited, you know, both of my uh my vocal and Michael’s together. But, even, you know, the moments where there’s no back backing track, it’s actually me singing, you know, the acapellas, which was really fun to to do. Here’s where it shifts.

Here’s the moment Jafaar stopped thinking of this as a performance to copy and started realizing it was never just a performance to begin with. It was an invention. Take the moonwalk, for example. Jafaar said the spin alone nearly broke him because Michael spun in the opposite direction most people would naturally turn.

Everything about it fought against instinct. Jafaar said watching the footage felt like watching a magic trick, and that wasn’t an accident. Michael loved that feeling. He wanted the audience to think something impossible was happening right in front of them. It was not just the choreographers teaching Jafaar how to dance like Michael.

Jafaar really went deep into it and created a research room of his own where he learned everything about Michael he possibly could. And create this re- research room here. I put everything I can find on Michael, all of his dislikes, all of his likes, what he what he loves, what he loves to eat, what he doesn’t like, you know, so I just wanted to familiarize myself with everything about Michael uh in a place where he lived and where I grew up as well.

And same timeline from 1962 all the way until 1996, which is the year I was born. And uh it’s very inspiring and I’m always um referencing this timeline if I feel I need it to inform me more on the world of that specific moment in the script. Jafaar was learning a language that already existed.

Michael had to invent the entire language first and then teach himself to speak it perfectly. He he he he worked me hard, bro. He’s he’s different. Like he’d be like he would call 3:00 4:00 in the morning be like, “Can I hear hear what you’re working on over the phone?” And I’ll be like, “I’m actually not working right now.

I’m actually trying to take a nap cuz I’ve been up for 30 [laughter] hours.” No, well can you go to studio right now and play? Like he’s like that. So I get up and drive to the studio and play him and Mike was so crazy with it that this this was crazy. I would play him something on the phone he’d be like, “Can you turn the high hats down 3 DBs? And then make sure he’s those and make sure they’re panned to the left.

” Mhm. And I’ll be like, “Really?” He goes, “Yes.” And here’s the part that puts everything into perspective. MJ’s work ethic makes the role more difficult. Jaafar trained for almost 3 to 4 years to recreate a handful of performances for a single film. Michael did this for decades, night after night, city after city, tour after tour.

The Victory Tour, the Bad Tour, the Dangerous Tour, the HIStory Tour. Each one demanded the same precision, the same control, the same physical toll Jaafar felt after just a few weeks of rehearsal. So the first 2 months of dancing those your feet are scrunched and then to do the toe stand, the moonwalk, and the side all these different moves and them and you know, over time it it it kind of it caused a lot of complications with my feet.

I applaud that. You know, I play a five on five I get plantar fasciitis. So I I applaud Oh yeah, I I went through all of that. Yeah, I applaud that that commitment. And then what was the like recovery process? You know, each day was kind of different because sometimes it would go numb for 20 minutes, sometimes it would go numb for 2 hours and like it’s not coming back and my you know, toe would go completely white.

It’d get completely cold. I had to gauge it and then I’ll have to apply a lot of heat to it. By the time of This Is It, Michael was in his 50s and he was still rehearsing for hours, still chasing perfection, still pushing himself and everyone around him to go further. Choreographers Rich and Tone, the same men who trained Jaafar, had been with Michael during the History Tour.

They told Jaafar stories about how Michael worked behind the scenes. I would say the the bit of stories I’ve heard of of his work ethic, how disciplined he was with uh being a perfectionist and it it could be one single move he’d work on for 5 to 6 hours. I would always remember hearing the story where he would rehearse until he wasn’t able to walk up a flight of stairs.

And I would take that and and apply it in my own way of how disciplined I would be with my moves or if he was working on the script or whatever it may be, just having that same discipline and not being satisfied, always wanting to uh search for something new, to explore something new that might come out uh one day or the next day.

So, to always stay curious and wanting to learn more. But it wasn’t just the dancing. That was only the surface of what Jaafar had to learn. Which performance was the most emotional for you? Oh, uh Pepsi. Uh shooting that. Just understanding and knowing what happened that uh that day and leading up to it, just thinking like obviously going through the choreography, then once the burn happens and then, you know, everyone storming in and having a sense of that chaos and that feeling.

It was uh pretty emotional and just imagining what Michael must have truly felt, especially up there, how sensitive that area is. He said he had to understand what Michael was feeling, not just what Michael was doing. The longing for independence while still loving his family. The pull between wanting creative freedom and wanting to protect the people closest to him.

The weight of being watched constantly, every interview, every appearance, every photo analyzed by millions of people. Jaafar went deep into Michael’s personal journals and private writings, things Michael never released, affirmations he wrote to himself just to get through difficult days. That’s the moment the role stopped being about movement entirely.

He wasn’t just learning how Michael danced anymore. He was learning what it felt like to live inside a level of fame that never turned off. Not during interviews, not on tour, not at home. Never. During Smooth Criminal, Michael noticed his tie wasn’t moving the way he wanted when he spun. So, the team added a small weight inside the tie just to get the motion exactly right.

He did the same thing with his jackets, trying different fabrics until they flowed perfectly during a spin. Jaafar said the wardrobe wasn’t just clothing to Michael, it was armor. The glove, the jacket, the hat, Michael didn’t feel ready to perform without those pieces on. And once Jaafar started rehearsing in the real costumes, he understood exactly why.

The energy of the entire performance shifted the moment he put them on. Every detail had a purpose. Nothing was random. Not the angle of a hat, not the inches of sock showing above his shoe, not the color of a single glove. By the end of it, Jaafar wasn’t the same person. People who worked with Jaafar on this project called the experience spiritual.

They talked about moments on set where something seemed to take over. Moments where the crew, the cast, everyone around him felt like Michael was somehow present. Not as a ghost story, as a feeling. A presence that showed up in the small details, in the way a scene suddenly felt right. I was just talking to your Uncle Jackie and he was talking about your performance and he started to cry.

I got so emotional. Cuz he became Michael on that screen and it brought tears to my eyes. He’s incredible. What did you see it? Jaafar is unbelievable. As a matter of fact, I I think he’s the only one that could have done this. But the emotion it brings out in your uncles and your other family members is amazing and beautiful.

How does that make you feel? It makes me emotional. I remember when they first saw the screen tests, I got a call from each one of them individually and even my uncle Tito, rest in peace to him and I just remember them getting emotional on the phone. I started to cry just hearing it from the words because to me that’s the truest and highest compliment I can get.

But more than anything, Jaafar walked away with something deeper than admiration. He understood in his own body what it actually took to be Michael Jackson. Not the fame, not the records sold, not the headlines, but the work. The repetition, the loneliness of an empty room with nothing but a mirror and the relentless need to get it right one more time every single day.

Jaafar Jackson spent years becoming Michael Jackson for a movie. Michael Jackson spent his entire life becoming Michael Jackson and there was no wrap day, no moment when the cameras stopped rolling, no rest. It felt like that. It was it was surreal, it was weird because it was just like going back in time, especially I wasn’t even born in that time and and for me to to see in the in the mirror and I’m the zombie version of Michael.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then to see all the zombies around me, it made me it was one of my favorite moments I think during the duration of filming. By the end of his journey, Jaafar understood something most people never will. The hardest part was never the moonwalk. It was never the spins or the high notes or the sold out stadiums packed with screaming fans.

The hardest part was carrying all of it every single day for an entire lifetime and somehow making it look effortless every single time the lights came up. If it took Jaafar this much just to imitate Michael for a few months, imagine what it took for Michael to live as Michael for over four decades.