Michael Jackson’s son’s reaction After Seeing Jaafar as Michael Will Break Your Heart – dw

Jaafar just embodied him and brought him back in that moment and it was difficult to maintain and keep composure because I really just wanted to give him a hug in that moment, but Certainly seeing my cousin Jaafar in person in his hair and makeup for our one of our early camera test really was It’s hard to explain what it what it felt like because I hadn’t seen my dad in a long time and for a split second he was there in front of me and my family’s home where these things happened. We filmed like I said with

Motown 25 at the Pasadena Civic Thriller right where it was. So I never got to see my father perform live and for me this is the closest that I’ll ever get. There is a moment when Prince Jackson describes seeing his cousin Jaafar for the first time fully in Michael Jackson’s hair and makeup. He does not call it exciting, he calls it a shock.

Michael Jackson’s oldest son stood in front of someone who suddenly looked, moved, and sounded like his father and for a few seconds he could not process what he was looking at. Growing up with Jaafar as we did at Havenhurst as siblings, as cousins, making home movies to now here we are making a major motion picture about my father, his uncle, someone we both love very much.

The I had gotten the benefit of seeing Jaafar’s kind of transformation over phone like pictures that I had seen on a phone or a computer, but the first time that I saw him in person in his hair and makeup was really an emotional shock. That single moment is the center of this story. Not a movie premiere, not a red carpet, a quiet camera test where a son came face-to-face with a version of his father he had not seen in years.

was really an emotional shock because I had not seen my father in a long time and to see him Jaafar just embodied him and brought him back in that moment and it was difficult to maintain and keep composure because I really just wanted to give him a hug in that moment, but I had to tell him like Jaafar, I’m proud of you.

You’re going to do great, but I need to take a a little step outside and get some air. To understand why this hit Prince so hard, you have to understand what he lost. Prince was only 12 years old when Michael Jackson died in 2009. He never got to see his father perform live on a full world tour. The closest he ever came was one concert at Madison Square Garden, and he was very young when it happened.

I was born in ’97, so the biggest kind of call it a regret is I never got to see him. Aw, that must be it. What? I did get to see him perform at Madison Square Garden right before 9/11 for the uh Jackson 5? Yeah, the reunion, right? That was big, too. That was crazy. was there. That gap matters.

For most fans, Michael Jackson lives on through old concert footage and music videos. For Prince, his father was also a parent who tucked him in, took him on walks, and shut down toy stores just so his kids could shop in peace. Losing him at 12 meant losing both a public icon and a private dad at the same time. Very interesting.

You know, we’re doing a lot of research. Personally, I’m doing a lot of research on him and just learning a lot about his history. And there’s so much to cover, right? It goes back to early ’70s, late ’60s. And when you see the performances and like on the Bad tour, the Dangerous tour, you see it from his perspective when he’s looking out and it’s just a sea of people watching him, and I always wondered doing that night after night, month after month, what what impact does that have on you? So, when the Michael biopic was announced, it was not just another

celebrity movie for this family. It was a chance to see a piece of that missing person again. And the pressure on whoever played Michael was enormous because this was not a stranger playing a stranger. This was family trying to rebuild someone they loved. We wanted to show that my father was always reaching out to people and bringing them in, inviting them in to be part of this community, especially those who were less fortunate than us.

The role went to Jaafar Jackson, Michael’s own nephew. He grew up around the same family and the same homes, surrounded by the same stories Prince grew up with. But blood alone does not make a performance. Jaafar trained for years studying Michael’s walk, his posture, and even the smallest hand movements that most people never notice.

Um a big piece of this was I was born in ’97 and I have a lot of cousins, big family, and I’ve heard all these great stories about what it was like with the family growing up together, ’70s, ’80s, early ’90s. And they’re great stories and I’m a little jealous cuz I wasn’t there for them, you know? And so for me to be able to relive so many of these memories with my cousin, but also in the areas that they were done.

Like we filmed a lot at Hayvenhurst at my family’s home where these things happened. Prince has said Jaafar worked to capture more than the look. He wanted the posture, the energy, and tiny details that only someone inside the family would recognize. That is a much harder task than copying a dance step.

Plenty of performers can learn choreography. Very few can recreate the way a person quietly held themselves in a room. I see my cousins, I try to see them frequently or regularly, but when Jaafar was working on this project, we didn’t see him. The only time that I actually saw him was when we went to Hayvenhurst cuz I had a Heal LA thing or something.

He’s covered in sweat dancing just on his own. Nobody told him to, it wasn’t part of his schedule. He had to keep himself in that state. Before that camera test, Prince had only seen Jaafar’s transformation through pictures on a phone or a computer screen. Photos are flat. They do not move. They do not talk.

So when Prince finally saw Jaafar in person, fully in hair and makeup, it was the first time the transformation felt real instead of staged. Far, I mean he he basically transformed into your dad. And did he do anything like what what give me the moment where it kind of freaked you out like, “Oh my god, that was that’s that’s my dad right there.

” Certainly was that camera test when I saw him in person. What was it about the camera test? Can you get the It was seeing him in person cuz That feeling didn’t stay locked inside his own head. Prince has said the moment became something shared, a memory he found himself living through again, right there on set, alongside the cousin who was bringing it back to life.

The way also just having the benefit of reliving it with my cousin on production or in production on set was a really uh honestly a therapeutic experience and one that I’m eternally grateful for. Prince described his own reaction honestly, without exaggeration. He said it was difficult to keep his composure.

His first instinct was not to talk about the performance or offer feedback. It was simply to want to hug Jaafar. Instead, Prince told him he was proud of him, then said he needed to step outside for a moment to get some air. Um well, I had always heard from my dad and from the family how much work it took to get to where they are and where they were.

And for me, hearing those stories, seeing them, and seeing it emulated in my cousin Jaafar, and him taking all of that work and dedication and time really put into perspective, you know, this was not easy to achieve. And to the levels that they achieved and how much work and dedication went in there, all while being a family man, being a man of the people, and giving back.

Jaafar just embodied him and brought him back in that moment, and it was difficult to maintain and keep composure because I really just wanted to give him a hug in that moment, but That detail says more than any dramatic reaction could. There were no tears described, no breakdown, no scripted moment for cameras. Just a son who needed 30 seconds alone to process seeing traces of his father again, unexpectedly, on a film set full of crew and equipment.

Prince was not the only one who felt it. He has said that Jaafar’s own audio recordings, made while practicing Michael’s speaking voice for producer Graham King, were so accurate that Prince initially believed the team had found unreleased audio of his actual father. He was told it was simply Jaafar with no AI involved. I had also heard some of his audio notes.

He was practicing his speaking voice as my dad and sending them to Graham, the producer. And when Graham played it for me, I thought he found some never-before-heard audio of my dad. And he’s like, “No, that that was Jaafar.” That is a striking detail because it means the resemblance was not built through visual effects or technology.

It came from years of study and discipline. Prince has mentioned that Jaafar trained constantly during production, even dancing alone at the family’s old home, Hayvenhurst, without anyone telling him to. Uh I didn’t see Jaafar for a long time. And the only time I did see him was when I was at our home in Hayvenhurst because he was either doing his research and he was pinning things all up along the wall like a Beautiful Minds.

He was working his butt off. Like when I would see him, he’s dripping in sweat cuz he’s been dancing by himself for the past couple hours. And so, from my observations, I think Jaafar really put in the work to learn more, to develop the character of Michael in this film. And to really just bring a nuanced performance.

There’s so many things and mannerisms, like you said, it probably came a lot of it naturally as well, but he worked really hard to refine them. Other family members who visited the set reportedly reacted the same way. Musicians who had toured with Michael decades earlier described feeling as if they had stepped into a time machine while watching Jaafar perform.

Some said the experience gave them chills. And their reaction was less about a costume and more about a familiar feeling returning after almost two decades. It was amazing to have some of Michael’s original band members come to watch Jaafar. And for them to say, “This is I give me chills. I feel like I’m in a time machine.

” I knew we were on something special. During the production of the film, a lot of our cousins and family members came to watch the performances or they came to watch Ja’far perform. And from the beginning, I think as family we’re very supportive and we were every bit confident that Ja’far would perform, but I’m happy to say I think that Ja’far greatly exceeded our expectations.

Just For Prince specifically, this experience was tied closely to his role as an executive producer on the film. He has said his main responsibility was protecting how his father was represented, making sure the story stayed honest instead of turning Michael into a symbol with no humanity left in him. Um I mean, first and foremost, authenticity is the biggest challenge in any story and especially my father having such an incredible life that spans five decades of him being at the top of his career, we wanted to approach

it from a way that audiences again of all ages could understand who he was as a person. We all know the story of the King of Pop, but I think this was our goal was to tell the story of Michael. How he started from the small home they grew up in in Gary, Indiana to arrive at the biggest stages and the biggest platforms all around the world.

That focus on humanity shows up in how Prince talks about the film’s quieter scenes, not just the concert sequences. He has pointed to moments depicting Michael visiting a burn hospital as some of the ones he hopes his father would be most proud of because they show the side of him that spent time with people going through real pain away from any stage.

But I think that he would be really proud of the the sequences in the the the burn hospital. Oh my god, very emotional, right? And I think that what’s so important even in that moment where he’s dealing with his own pain and uncertainty of his own future, he’s taking his time to spend moments with people who are dealing with similar burns as him or even worse burns.

Prince has watched the finished film more than a dozen times since its release and he has said each viewing reveals something new. He’s also said the emotional weight of the project came less from watching the final movie and more from living through the years of preparation, research, and filming that led up to it.

How many times have you seen it, Prince? I’m probably on my 14th now. I think what’s the most interesting thing about the film seeing it 14 times is I don’t ever get bored of it even though I know what’s going to happen and every time I’ve watched it I’ve noticed something new.

And I was there every day on set so I knew what we filmed and I knew the shots and the scenes but the way when it comes all piece together through post-production, I noticed more nuances. I was like, oh, I’m I guess I saw him do that but I didn’t notice how important that was. None of this means Prince has said the experience was easy.

He has spoken about missing his father every single day and about the strange reality of sharing him with the entire world. He has said that when Michael died, the world stopped for him in a way most people never experience with a public figure. Having a parent is very important and always, you know, he should be here to see the world celebrating right now and it hurts that he isn’t but I take a lot of comfort or consonance in a lot of people lose their parents but everybody, the world stopped when my dad died and it certainly did for me but not a lot of

people can say that and it’s just I I’ve had to share my father with the world but it comes with so much love and it really is a blessing at the end of the day. That is really what makes this story different from an ordinary movie reaction. Most viewers will watch Jafar and think about a performance.

Prince watched Jafar and for a brief moment thought about his dad. Those are two very different experiences happening in the same room at the same time. It’s the property overall is special, you know, and to my point where I was saying that he was experimenting a little bit with what Neverland ultimately would be.

You feel his presence and that joy throughout the property and there are definitely rooms like the memory room where you can see a lot of that intention behind it. And it just it’s such a special place. Seeing a father recreated by a cousin who grew up in the same house, playing in the same rooms, carrying some of the same mannerisms without even trying, creates a strange kind of collision between past and present.

It is not just watching history. It is watching family carry a memory forward in real time in front of you. That is why Prince’s brief, quiet reaction ended up meaning more to fans than any trailer or marketing clip could. It was not performed for the cameras. It was one relative recognizing another relative wearing the face of the person they both lost.

Well, I hope for people who were lucky enough to grow up with the Jackson 5 and the Jacksons that it will bring back that feeling of nostalgia and fun and just having a good time. And for the people like myself and younger who were unfortunate enough to not grow up with that, I really hope that it reintroduces their legacy because we know a lot about my father, my family later in life, but I think that there’s so many important moments in his creation story starting as the Jackson 5 in the small home in Gary, Indiana,

working his way up to the biggest stage in the world. And I think that that’s really important for audiences to know and I’m hoping that it recontextualizes that for younger audiences and to know all the hard work and dedication that really went into becoming the King of Pop. If you were in Prince’s place, how do you think you would have reacted? Tell me in the comments.