Halloween lands on Saturday this year, and one member of the Jackson family picked this week to share a confession. It is about something a lot of folks would never want in the house.
Jaafar Jackson is the young man playing Michael Jackson in this year’s movie “Michael.” He is Michael’s nephew, the son of Michael’s brother Jermaine, so the family resemblance runs deep. Watching him step into those shoes has been emotional for fans, and lately he’s been doing a round of interviews to talk about it.
Variety sat down with him for a feature published on Oct 19. Tucked inside was a quick little game called “10 Questions,” the kind where a star answers fast and you learn the small human things you’d never get from a red carpet.
One question asked him to name something he loved as a kid that he can’t believe he was into.
His answer surprised a lot of readers.
A tarantula. The big hairy spider that makes most people jump up on a chair. Jaafar didn’t just like them as a boy. He still keeps one today.
In his own words, here’s what he told Variety: “Tarantulas. I have one as a pet now. And toy soldiers. I used to imagine battles with toy soldiers.”
So the man bringing his uncle to life on the big screen goes home to a pet spider. You have to smile at that.
The “10 Questions” box had other fun bits too. His childhood nickname was “Art.” His secret talent is juggling. And he admitted he’s never once done karaoke, because, in his words, “I’m too shy.” A shy guy who can sing like that, and who keeps a tarantula. People are full of surprises.
If you want to hear Jaafar talk about growing up in the most famous musical family in the world, and what it felt like to play his uncle, Variety filmed a full sit-down with him.
Jaafar Jackson’s full Variety interview about playing Michael
He also shared that if he could have played any other movie role it would have been Hector in “Troy,” and that his own pick for an alternate title for “Michael” would have been “Man in the Mirror.”
It’s easy to forget that the people we watch on screen have these ordinary, quirky little corners to their lives. Jaafar carries a huge weight stepping into his uncle’s legacy, and yet here he is, happy to tell the world he loves a creature most of us would carry outside with a cup and a piece of paper.
Read the full story and his answers below, and see if you guessed his kid-self’s favorite before the reveal.