Shadowing Practice: Becoming Michael with Jaafar Jackson - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hi GQ, I'm Jafar Jackson and I'm here to talk about how I prepared for the role of Michael Jackson.

I believe in music, we can change the world.

I first heard about this project, I believe I was online and I saw an article that Graham King got the rights to tell the Michael Jackson story.

I heard of any news regarding the Michael biopic.

At that time I was creating music, I was producing a lot, so I didn't have any thoughts of, "Oh, let me play him." It was more so,

"That's going to be interesting.

I wonder where they're going to take that." I got a call from Graham King.

He asked if I ever acted before and I told him no. I've never acted.

I never wanted to.

But I'm a big fan of films and I more so want to do film scores.

One thing led to the other.

Next thing we're having lunch in person.

and he's telling me about the story of how he wants to tell Michael's story, and at this time there's no Studio attached, there was no director attached, it was very early on.

The script wasn't ready yet.

He asked, "Would you be open to acting?" "Or if I got you with a coach, would you be willing to try it?" "You might hate it, you might love it." I was like,

"I need to really think about it before just diving into it." I'm someone who really wants to pull something.

I don't want to just try it just for fun.

If I go into it, I really want to commit to it.

So I told him, "Let me think about it for a couple days." I didn't really hear back for some time.

note of me speaking as Michael to the best of my ability at that time and also singing a song or two.

I sang a Peter Pan song that Michael He never sang it officially, but it was more so off the record.

I sang it like a lullaby to him.

And also just speaking to him in Michael's speaking voice.

And he called me right away and said, "I'm getting you a coach tomorrow." And that was the starting point of when I really started to try out acting.

It was about two years.

Because the first year I was really just working with Angela Gibbs, the coach, on other scenes from films, plays.

And then eight months in, we started to work on specific scenes from the script Michael and everything was recorded so Graham can see my progression.

Then a year and a couple months in that's when I started working with Rich and Tone, the choreographers that were on the history tour with Michael.

So it was like a continuation of many moments.

It wasn't just one audition.

There was many different moments I had to really show up and pull off the performance whether it was a dance, singing a song or a scene.

I would say close to two years in they told me they're

and that put even more fire inside of me to want to work even harder, double the hours I was already putting in.

So I had the time to really do that and having Havenhurst, which is the home in Encino where Michael lived and where I actually grew up,

I went back there and set up a training camp, a way to have a place to really work as long as I want, as hard as I want, as free as I want.

That was a turning point for me to have that space to be able to do that.

really tell me how proud she was and just hug me and say how excellent I was doing.

That's all I needed to hear, to really give me the confidence to pursue and continue to put in the hours and really,

really work towards what I wanted to achieve.

Her opinion really was all I needed to hear.

That's really all I wanted to hear.

I just have all these ideas in my head.

I just gotta get them out.

To emulate, for me it all started with with the foundation.

So I study a lot of the Jackson 5 and then

when they became the Jacksons and just to see really focusing on Michael and how he's feeling in those moments.

Also creatively what he want to express and that longing for that independence and what that felt like but also

trading as a group and what that brought out, but in particular, it was important for me to understand the human side of Michael

and that individual side of him that not a lot of people were familiar with.

So that was very exciting for me to dive into.

Coming from all memories of him, there were

A few cherishable memories that I have that it was more

so the emotions that come out of them that more so than observing him with his mannerisms and things like that, but the effect he had,

you know, if you were to walk in a room and how palpable that was, you'd be able to feel it.

But for me, it was really looking into his own, his personal writings, his personal journaling,

and that was truly informative to allow me into his mindset of how he was feeling.

of what he wanted to achieve, you know, some goals he had written down and it was such a blessing for me really to have access to that.

And then I created this timeline room of so much information

that really allowed me to stay grounded in it and not get lost in the way.

I really needed to see it, you know, with my own eyes and that really informed me even with the script.

So I knew where each you know timeline was and I understood what he was feeling.

Also his personal notes allowed me to to do that and place it in that time.

Some of it was just how he thought like a marketing genius and how he went to

to be seen and he really studied that from other greats.

And I feel like he incorporated that even with his videos, how a color can draw the audience's attention just by the color of a hat

or a glove or showing his socks a certain amount of inches and how he was hands on with everything he created.

But also his ability to have

that sensitivity of what was going on in the world as well

and how he wanted to help the world through his music and continue that message. about this movie.

I really hope they want to have a deeper understanding of Michael

and a lot of the decisions and and choices he made with the music and his artistic freedom,

but also a deeper understanding of the family dynamics and from the Jackson 5 all the way up until the Bad Tour.

And what you see with that is it's a close family that had so much love in there, and while also having Joseph wanting to steer and protect his family.

And there were so many different voices and people wanting to come in to get in that, and Joseph really wanted to protect that as much as he could.

And then along What comes with that is Michael's ability or him wanting to have that creative freedom, not being stuck in a box, wanting to reinvent himself.

And that's something with Michael that really surprises a lot of people.

He would never be allowed to be put in a box.

He always wanted to create something that's unexpected and take the audience by surprise.

It's natural.

It's a flow.

All together.

if I had it in me to pull off the performances.

And I know we had about 20 days of a boot camp, basically.

And within those 20 days, we were breaking down the Billie Jean performance for Motown 25.

And I was so self -conscious at that point.

I was so, I guess, doubtful in the sense that I knew I couldn't get it down in that time frame.

I knew I needed more than 20 days.

But within that time, I really learned a lot about myself that, even though I wasn't pulling off a lot of the moves or knowing the meaning behind it,

tried it again and again over and over until I got it right

or if I didn't get it right I was still trying it

and I think once I had that

that time afterwards after those 20 days taking that time to Havenhurst

and setting up mirrors and the same dancing room Michael would train in I think

that really was a spiritual journey for me just to be in

that same energy to sit in that space

but also just to dance for hours and hours every day and look at it as a as a full -time job.

life -changing for me to have that experience, even for my body, to not be...

go from not dancing or having some rhythm, but then to doing full -on Michael Jackson moves, but performing.

And it was all for myself at the moment.

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I had no audience, it was just me in some mirrors in a room

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and just grinding it out until I felt like I can full fool myself in the mirror.

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I was working on Billie Jean.

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I'll solely focus on that, I would say, for about close to a year, because that was the most challenging for me.

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And then I started to dance to other songs.

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Then I started to get comfortable to try and, you know, freestyle to other songs, but in Michael's vocabulary of his movements.

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And that became really fun.

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And the moonwalk, I mean, as a kid, I always used to try and do it.

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But it's different when you're doing it as a kid to

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when you're trying to do it just like Michael and look just like him doing it.

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The moonwalk is very challenging for many different reasons.

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The flooring is important, the shoes you're wearing, and that was something new for me is being able to dance in loafers and getting used to that.

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Why did he choose loafers?

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I would say, you know, maybe Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly,

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that style of how they were dancing and seeing that the white kind of penetrate through through that, so it allows the eye to catch the movements a little cleaner.

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I think it had to do with that, but he wore loafers even when he wasn't dancing.

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And I think they just go with everything.

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But the moonwalk, I'm still figuring that one out too.

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I would say the spin and the moonwalk are definitely the most challenging.

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The way

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Michael spins, you know going into I didn't think it would be

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that hard or I knew it would be somewhat challenging

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but not as hard as I It came out to be

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because I'm still you know trying to figure that out I usually

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if I were to spin I spin to my right

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and Michael spins to his left So it was

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so challenging to find that balance

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and get used to spinning on the opposite side where you're naturally used to

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and And doing it in the way that looks just like Michael or to have that speed and intensity.

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Also being able to stop on a dime or right when

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that snare hits or to control that timing of when you stop, and have the balance and then go into another transition of a move.

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Yeah, the more I studied his movements and looked at footage, there was some sense of magic it felt like, or just like a phenomenon.

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Like the certain movements and transitions, it seemed as if it was a trick, illusion in that sense.

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And I know he was such a fan of that, of having that element of surprise or the element of magic within a performance to trick the audience to think it's

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something unusual going on.

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So for me that that came with just watching repeatedly over and over again certain movements to break down.

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Okay.

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Where's his body, where's the weight shifting on this foot and that foot to give that illusion effect?

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And also getting a lot of backstory from Rich and Tone, the choreographers, and, 'cause they had a lot of stories to tell from the rehearsals with Michael.

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Rich and Tone would tell me, like, if, If Michael saw move or a few dances doing something that he didn't, not that he didn't like, but that he felt could be better.

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He would just say, "Oh, can you do that again one more time?" Or, "Can you kind of call you out to do it in front of him?"

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And he would just observe and circle around you while he was doing it, and then he would say, "You're almost getting it." He almost got it.

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So to kind of push you to keep striving for more, those are one of the things that comes to me.

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The one glove.

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It's like, for Michael, I would think that was his armor.

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You know, he didn't feel fully ready if you didn't have some of those pieces on him to go out and perform,

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it added that dramatic and that sense of It's time to go out and put on a show.

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And I had some of that same

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experience like when I was rehearsing I felt like something was missing until I started to rehearse with actual, you know, wardrobe and pieces and it really,

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it changed the energy of the performance when I would rehearse with the glove

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or rehearse with some of the actual jackets and fedoras.

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It informed me a lot.

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And I think the-- The first thing that was most difficult for for me in the movement was the pants, doing the kicks, making sure there's some stretch in there,

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so I don't rip them when I'm kicking or doing a side kick or an extended kick.

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That was We had to create a lot of gussets in the pants to give me some room to do those moves.

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It's really interesting because Michael was so into the clothing of, especially the movements, and I just remember hearing stories about it.

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When he was doing Smooth Criminal, he was

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trying to figure out why his tie wasn't moving with the spin the way he wanted it to when he stopped.

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So they put like a quarter in the tie to add more weight to it

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so it had that effect when he would spin

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or he would try on jackets to make sure

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when he spins they kind of float up and give that effect so he was very in tune with how

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the dance would be perceived through the clothing as well.

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So he thought about every little nuance, which is, it's incredible.

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And I started to learn more about that when I was studying him.

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The most iconic costume That's hard.

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Either thriller or The Grammy outfit.

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I think my favorite is the Grammy outfit just because all the beating and everything is handmade with that one.

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It was heavy putting that one on.

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And I just love the way it looks when the light hits it.

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It's pretty incredible.

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Working on the body movements and mannerisms was fun for me, and that came with observing as much footage as I could on him,

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whether it's him in interviews or on stage, but mostly moments when he's not aware he's on camera.

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That's what I was looking for.

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For me, it was just

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dissecting and consuming as much of that as possible to a point where you're not consciously doing it.

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You're doing it without knowing it and that's the place I wanted to be with that.

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That was the most important thing is capturing the essence, not trying to copy or mimic exactly what he did, but doing it, find, you know,

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my own truth in it that allows me to express it in that way.

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And that came with, um, A lot of research and a lot of different things to try out and explore on my own.

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Also time.

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I think time was a big thing allowing me the space and freedom to explore those things, to see what worked, to see what didn't work.

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Also that spiritual journey side of it as well.

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So, not force anything, allow and trust things to come on its own at the same time.

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What helped me as an actor, I would say, is some of those personal writings of Michael's, of his affirmations.

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He would always write things to It was many different things, but a lot of the affirmations he had, they resonated with me for many different reasons.

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But depending on the day of what we were shooting, most important for me was to really stay present and allow whatever I was feeling that day to

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to come and if it was something I didn't want, just allow it to kind of

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channel through me and it'll find its way out and just

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to be an open source and not be restraint in any way.

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So I just wanted to walk on set ready and to go in any direction, but also knowing Michael's there with me.

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There were a few moments like that where I felt Yeah, he was definitely a present.

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Some of the performances, a few songs when I was performing, some of the locations we were at, I definitely felt that.

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I think some of the crew felt that as well.

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I heard some stories, so there's a lot of love and protection and guidance on that set every day.

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I would think he'd be most proud of, jeez, I don't know, the performances, I would say.

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Some of the movements I was able to do, or I honestly don't know.

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But I would hope he feels the love and care

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that was put into it to capture his essence and his genius, really.

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wanting to bring the world together.

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This is such a huge starting point for me into the world of acting.

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I definitely want to continue this and bring out other sides of me

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that have never been explored and characters that will be very unexpected.

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And I'm super excited about that.

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And to collaborate with other genius creators, yeah.

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I hope you guys enjoyed learning about my approach on playing Michael Jackson.

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This is Shafari Jackson.

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Thank you so much.

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you

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing Practice: Becoming Michael with Jaafar Jackson - Learn English Speaking with Video

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What is the Shadowing Technique?