Michael Premiere, Nia Long Interview

It's so amazing. This is this is like the most incredible evening for all of us. We've worked so hard on this film. All we wanted to do was to honor and celebrate Michael and have a moment to come together and party because we've all worked so hard and I hear everyone in Berlin likes to party so I'm looking forward to the after-party. But Michael's legacy, his love for humanity, his his commitment to his family to his brothers to himself. And that's what's beautiful about this film you're going to see the process in which he took from becoming a young child star to becoming an adult star and I think, you know, the difference between us and him is that he had millions and millions of people watching him as he was trying to go through the process of self-discovery which is difficult for everyone.

And so the story is told from his point of view. You really are inside of his mind watching the film and I think that that's super important and amazing and something new. And that's the story that Graham King and Antoine Fuqua set out to to tell. What attracted me most was was Graham King and Antoine Fuqua because they were they had such a perspective on the material. And, you know, obviously there've been other films about Michael Jackson but this one felt different. It felt intimate, it felt also that perhaps it was a a part of it just had a a more spiritual element to it. And then I did some research on Jaafar and I was like oh my gosh he's perfect and so that's just kind of been the motivation but also to play a woman whose love and commitment and care for her children is so important to me.

I'm a mother myself my son is actually here over there. Um, I he's playing hooky from school. And I understand that love. I know that love so much it's so heavy it's so deep it's it's relentless. And and that's who I think Katherine Jackson is she's a relentless relentless leader of her children, of her family, her commitment, her um tenacity, her strength, her strength is quiet but her strength is rooted in kindness and love. And so to play a woman described as such is really a an honor and a blessing for me yes. Joy and happiness and love and amazing. That's what I want them to feel. Yes.