In 2020, producer Graham King called Jaafar Jackson and told him he wanted a Zoom meeting. Jaafar already had a feeling about where that call was going. What he could not have known was that the conversation would consume the next six years of his life and cost him something most actors never get asked to give up. Himself.
Jaafar had never acted before. He had no film credits, no drama school training, and no blueprint for what it means to play someone the entire world already knows. He sent King a voice note of himself speaking as Michael. King called back immediately.
WHAT FOLLOWED WAS TWO YEARS OF PREPARATION BEFORE A SINGLE CAMERA ROLLED.
He spent that time studying Michael’s personal journals, poems, and private affirmations. He placed those same affirmations on his own walls and mirrors during rehearsals.
Jaafar Jackson unveils the hardest Michael performance to recreate:
He went through decades of archival footage to learn about the iconic moments and the smaller things in Michael’s daily life. Like the pauses between words, the way Michael’s body shifted when music started, the difference between how he performed for thousands and how he sat across from a single interviewer.
HE WAS NOT LEARNING TO IMPERSONATE A POP STAR. HE WAS LEARNING TO THINK LIKE ONE.
Rehearsal days ran fourteen hours. The makeup chair alone took hours each morning, a slow daily transformation that Jaafar described as both surreal and spiritual. He said watching himself become Michael was emotional every single time.
Jaafar erased himself in practicing for the role
The Hollywood Reporter called his performance convincing. The Credits called it flawless. One insider who saw early footage said it simply:
“THIS KID IS ABSOLUTELY AWESOME IN THE MOVIE”.
Critics have been divided on the film itself. But almost nobody has been divided on Jaafar. The performance was always going to be the hardest part of this entire production.
He walked into that knowing the world would compare every frame to the real thing. He did it anyway. And he nailed it