Jaafar Jackson says it is a “misconception” that his uncle Michael Jackson “wanted to be white”.
The 29-year-old actor portrays the late King of Pop in the new biopic Michael and has described how the movie will give new insight into how the Thriller hitmaker was affected by his battle with vitiligo — a disorder that causes the skin to lose its pigment and white patches to appear.
Asked for the biggest misconception about Michael, Jaafar told Extra: “I would say that he wanted to be white.
“That’s a big misconception, and this film gives you that understanding of what that is, you know, that vitiligo played a part in his life, and not a lot of people really understand what that is and he was dealing with that from an early age.”
Michael — who died at the age of 50 in 2009 — once claimed that he was “hurt” by theories suggesting that he was attempting to appear white.
The Bad hitmaker said in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 1993: “It is something I cannot help. When people make up stories that I don’t want to be who I am, it hurts me.
“It’s a problem for me. I can’t control it. But what about all the millions of people who sit in the sun to become darker, to become other than what they are. Nobody says nothing about that.”
Meanwhile, Jaafar makes his film debut as Michael in Antoine Fuqua’s biopic — which spans the Billie Jean artist’s time as a child star in the Jackson 5 to his early solo career — and considers it to be a “defining” moment in his life.
Jaafar, the son of Michael’s brother Jermaine Jackson, said at the movie’s Hollywood premiere: “I won’t experience anything like that (again), just having that first-time experience on a set, but to portray my Uncle Michael and all the time I put into preparation, then to finally release it on set… and then to be here and seeing the reaction from everyone and the fact that there’s so many people that came out. I couldn’t be happier.”
The star hopes that audiences gain a “deeper understanding” of his uncle after watching Michael.
Jaafar said: “I really hope that the audiences walk away with a true, deeper understanding of Michael the human being and to really take in those moments, you know, regardless of the performances and those big spectacle moments that we’re familiar with, but really those moments that we haven’t seen behind closed doors where if it’s just a look he gives or if it’s a quiet moment that really allows you into his psyche, his soul.”
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