“I slept in many different rooms in the house just to feel the energy,” Jafaar says of using the Jackson family’s California estate.
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L: Jaafar Jackson; R: Michael Jackson.Credit :
Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty; Frank Edwards/Fotos International/Getty
While preparing to play his uncle Michael Jackson in the upcoming biopic Michael, Jaafar Jackson turned to the King of Pop’s home for inspiration — even if that meant sleeping on the estate’s floor.
In an April 6 Interview Magazine feature, the 29-year-old singer and dancer opened up to his co-star Miles Teller about what it was like to portray his family member in the film. Jaafar’s father, Jermaine Jackson, 71, is Michael’s brother and a member of the Jackson 5.
“It’s the type of experience that reshapes who you are for the better,” Jafaar explains to Teller, who plays John Branca, an entertainment lawyer and co-executor of Michael’s estate. He adds: “To be able to live in those shoes, feel some of what he was feeling, see life through fresh eyes the way Michael did — it was important to feel all those things so I could come from a place of truth, rather than trying to imitate or copy the shape of the moves.”
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Jaafar turned to Michael’s personal writings, including his journals, poems, mantras and affirmations. But to further his research, Jaafar says he even slept on the floor of Michael’s family home.
“Always on the floor because there’s no furniture in the house at Hayvenhurst,” Jafaar says of the Jackson family compound located in Encino, Calif. The property was purchased by Joe Jackson in 1971 when Michael was about 13, and later that year, the family was featured on the cover of Life magazine inside the home.
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“You could have gotten an air mattress,” Teller suggests.“It’s funny because Graham said, ‘Are you sure you don’t want production to get a bed or anything?’ I got one of those thin Japanese-style mattresses,” Jaafar says.
He adds that in preparation for the film, he went back to Hayvenhurst — where he lived for 15 years — and set up a “research room.”
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“I slept in many different rooms in the house just to feel the energy,” he explains. “Staying there allowed that to happen without forcing it. I was so fortunate to have that as my playground. Without that, I don’t think my performance would be what it is, honestly.”
But sleeping wasn’t the only time Jaafar used the home.“There was a dance room where Michael used to train,” he says. “I started training there.”
Today, the home remains in the Jackson family and is closed to the public. In fact, it was used to film scenes for the 2026 film, Jaafar says.
“Shooting at Hayvenhurst, there were so many things going on in my head while trying to be present,” he says. “Past memories of my grandpa in that same chair he was sitting in, or the same chain he was wearing, and then seeing Nia (Long) as my grandmother, having that love and that passion and those little subtleties that really make her who she is, it was very emotional.”
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Michael, from director Antoine Fuqua (The Equalizer, Emancipation), hits theaters April 24 and follows the “Man in the Mirror” singer from his early days in the Jackson 5 to his “triumphs and tragedies on an epic, cinematic scale,” according to a synopsis.
