Antoine Fuqua thought Jafaar Jackson WAS Michael Jackson

Michael director Antoine Fuqua got interested in the movie when he mistook a picture of Jafaar Jackson for an old photo of Michael Jackson.

Michael director Antoine Fuqua mistook a picture of Jafaar Jackson for an old photo of Michael Jackson.

The 60-year-old filmmaker has recalled how he was “blown away” when Director of Photography Bob Richardson showed him a picture of the 26-year-old star before he had signed up to work on the biopic of the late King of Pop – who died in 2009 aged 50 – and it helped convince him to sign on.

Antoine told Deadline: “Bob Richardson, the DP, we were working on Equalizer 3 together, and he showed me a photo of Michael Jackson and him on the set.

“And I said ‘Bob, how do you look exactly the same with long grey hair with Michael? He said, ‘That isn’t Michael, it’s Jaafar, his nephew, they did a test.’ And it blew me away. He told me that Graham King really wanted me to do this Michael film and I hadn’t read the script yet.

“After that, Graham flew to the Amalfi Coast and we sat down, talked about Michael, and that’s when it started. He talked to me about any concerns I might have, and I read the script, and I was in.”

The director knew Jafaar was the right man to play his uncle during an early day of filming which left the crew in tears.

He said: “When I got involved on the set, and he was dancing, I threw a question at Jaafar that he didn’t know was coming. I was rolling and I asked him a question like he was Michael.

“The room stopped, it was almost spiritual: He answered my question as if he was Michael. [Director of photography] Dion Bebe who was helping out with the test, he had tears in his eyes, and half of the crew did. It was so powerful. I thought he could do it.

“Because he didn’t know I was going to ask him that question and he didn’t know that I was rolling. I wanted to see if he could stay in the moment and be Michael.”

Antoine initially made his name working on music videos and he recalled a brief conversation he had with Michael about potentially working with the “sweet” star on his 1992 single Remember the Time.

Asked if he had ever met Michael, he said: “No, just a phone call when I was being considered as a director for “Remember the Time.” I was in Italy, so I couldn’t be part of the bidding on that one. He was a quiet, sweet guy.

“It wasn’t so much an audition or anything like that, it was more him saying hello and how much he liked my work. It was like he was touching base with me. It wasn’t a long phone call.