Most people on the set of the new movie “Michael” were there to do a job. Prince Jackson was there for something a lot more personal. He’s Michael Jackson’s oldest son, and he signed on as an executive producer so he could help tell his father’s story the right way.
Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, passed away back in 2009, when Prince was still a boy. So spending day after day around a film about his dad was already a heavy thing. Then came the part nobody could really prepare him for.
The man playing Michael in the movie is Jaafar Jackson. Jaafar is Michael’s nephew, which makes him Prince’s cousin, and the two grew up in the same big family. For weeks the crew had been building the look, the hair and the makeup and the clothes, the whole transformation. One day Jaafar finally stepped out in all of it, head to toe, for the first time.
Prince talked about that moment with Linsey Davis, an anchor at ABC News, in a rare sit-down interview.
He described what happened next, and you can hear him tell it in his own words.
Prince Jackson tells ABC News what it felt like to see his cousin in full costume
Watch Prince Jackson’s interview on ABC News
Prince said seeing Jaafar like that “was really an emotional shock because I had not seen my father in a long time.” For a second it wasn’t a cousin in a costume standing there. It was something much closer to home.
And he admitted the hardest part of it. “It was difficult to maintain and keep composure because I really just wanted to give him a hug in that moment,” he said.
He didn’t, though. Jaafar had a scene to shoot, and Prince didn’t want to throw him off right before it. So he held himself together and said the kind of thing a big brother says. “I had to tell him like, ‘Jaafar, I’m proud of you. You’re gonna do great’,” Prince remembered.
Then he quietly excused himself. “But I need to take a little step outside and get some air,” he said.
That was the whole moment. He wanted to hug the cousin who suddenly looked so much like the father he’d lost, and instead he held back, told Jaafar he was proud, and walked out for a minute to breathe.
Prince has said more than once that his main goal with “Michael” is to get his dad right, the man he knew at home and not only the superstar the rest of the world watched. Seeing Jaafar become him, even just for a movie, clearly brought all of that rushing back.
The clip runs only a couple of minutes, and Prince’s face says about as much as his words do. Go watch it.